Opposites Attract: Alternative version
by JCB
Summary: Chapter 9 up. This is an alternative version of my current AU story.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters; I'm only borrowing them for a while.**

**This story is set post Home (part 2) but is AU and is built on a scenario where Lee didn't just walk away after telling Kara that he loved her. However, everything is not going according to the "happy ever after" plan! Spoilers up to and including Resurrection Ship. **

**There are two versions of this story. This is the alternative version: the first four chapters are essentially the same but after that they will continue on slightly different paths. I'd really like to know how you find both and whether this is an interesting experiment or just a complete waste of everyone's time!**

**Opposites Attract**

**Chapter 1 **

Lee could hear the sounds of merriment coming from the rec room before he even got there. Her distinctive laugh echoed down the corridor, mixed with the deeper laughs of her male companions. He stood silently in the hatch way and watched, a feeling of anger rising in his chest.

Kara was perched on Helo's lap, one hand clasping his neck as the other tried to grab the cigar he was holding just out of her reach.

"Give it to me you bastard!"

"Why should I? It's mine."

"Give it to me!" She stretched up a bit further but Helo just laughed even more and moved her quarry further out of her reach.

"No, you know that you can't have it."

"I won't smoke it; I just want a sniff. Please, Helo, pretty please; just a little sniff for your bestest, bestest friend who doesn't mind in the slightest that you're frakking a toaster."

A disgruntled "tsk" from the hatch way made them both turn in unison. Helo was slightly embarrassed to be found with Kara sitting on his lap by the CAG, but he couldn't exactly tip her on to the floor to stand and salute. He went for the polite question instead.

"Is there something we can do for you Captain?"

"Not you Helo, I know you're off duty, but I was under the impression that Lieutenant Thrace was on shift and was supposed to be completing the evaluations on the new recruits." He glared at Kara.

"Don't sweat it Apollo. The reports will be on your desk by the end of the shift," she replied nonchalantly, her gaze never leaving his.

He stared back at her for a few moments then turned sharply and strode away.

"What's up with the CAG?" asked Hotdog when he was out of hearing range.

"Oh, just ignore Captain Grumpy, I'll deal with him later," she replied lightly, but the laughter had died from her face and her eyes took on a steely glint.

"Can you let me know when you're gonna deal with him?" asked Helo.

"Why?"

"Well your last fight was such a humdinger that I was thinking of making some money by selling tickets for this one, and having a little book on the side on who would throw the first punch," he replied, a shit-eating grin splitting his face. She laughed and cuffed him on the shoulder.

"You should know that I always throw the first punch. I'd better go and get it over with now before you can drum up an audience." She climbed off his lap, picked up her pile of paperwork and strolled out of the rec room in the direction Lee had taken.

−

When she reached his office, Lee was slamming reports onto the ever increasing pile on his desk with unnecessary violence. She shut the hatch and then went over and dumped her reports on top of the others.

"There are your frakking reports, Lee. I'd already finished them." He glanced at them, squinting at her scrawled writing.

"I don't call that finished. I have to be able to read them, lieutenant." She stood back and glared at him, hands on hips and eyes flashing with anger.

"What is your problem, Lee?"

"I'm not the one with the problem, lieutenant."

"Will you just cut the rank crap? It's just you and me in a locked room. I'm your wife, Lee; I don't expect to be addressed like I'm some naughty school child."

"When we're both on duty, I have to treat you as our working relationship demands and that means that you need to do the same. I can't have you undermining my authority just because we have a personal relationship, Kara." She looked at him incredulously.

"Gods Lee, if you shoved that stick any further up your ass you'd be coughing splinters. Have you any idea how pompous you sound?"

"Its not pomposity; it's just a fact of life. You have to treat me like the CAG when we're working and that means you call me sir or Captain or Apollo and you treat me with respect."

"When have I shown any disrespect?"

"Huh? Where should I start? What about yesterday on the flight deck?"

"You were being a jerk, Lee and it was a joke; you know, one of those funny moments we used to share together before we started frakking."

"Before we were frakking…..is that all this is to you? I'm just a good frak?"

"Who said you were any good?"

"You….you…you're unbelievable! Why don't you just completely crush my manhood while you're at it." She took a deep breath and let out a loud sigh.

"Look Lee, I'm frustrated and I'm miserable and I don't know what to do about it except lash out at you. Forget I said that, of course you're a good frak, the best." She ran her hand up and down his arm and took another deep, steadying breath then looked at him seriously. "It's not working is it?"

"What's not working?"

"This!" She waived her hand between them in frustration. "You, me, marriage. It's not working, Lee."

He was thrown by her sudden change to this very touchy subject.

"What makes you say that? I think we're doing OK."

"Gods you're dense. We don't have fun with each other anymore Lee. We don't even talk, we just fight. That's all our marriage is about: it's just frakking and fighting."

"Well I'm sorry that I can't be as much fun as your friend Helo, but I have responsibilities that I can't just drop every time you fancy a bit of down time. Things are in a bit of a mess around the fleet in case you haven't noticed," he responded, grumpily.

"See that's just what I'm talking about. You're so busy, yet every time I spend time with my friends who happen to be other men you turn into this jealous freak."

"I'm not jealous!"

"Like hell you aren't! What about just now? You could've easily come into the rec room, made some light remark to let me know that you wanted those reports and that you didn't like to see me sitting on Helo's lap but no, you have to go all huffy and piss on everyone's parade."

"Well excuse me if I don't like the sight of my wife fawning over some other man," he shouted at her.

"I wasn't fawning and you've got a screw loose if you're jealous of Helo: he's in love with a toaster for frak sake."

"I don't care who he's in love with. You're my wife now Kara, you can't just carry on like you did before." The volume of their voices had been rising steadily to the point where they were now both shouting whilst standing toe to toe. If Helo had gathered an audience outside then they were getting value for their money.

"Yes, I'm your wife and don't I know it. I'm constantly trying to come up to your expectations of what the woman who holds that hallowed position should be like. You've put some fictitious version of me on a hopelessly high pedestal that no real woman could hope to reach. Well I can't take it anymore Lee. I've tried as hard as I can, but I told you not to try and change me, to change who I was when you asked me to marry you. You said that you wanted me just the way I was, but that's not been good enough for you, has it Lee?"

"Don't be silly Kara, of course you're good enough, but marriage is about compromise. I'm not trying to change you, I'm not asking that you undergo some radical personality makeover, I'm just asking that you consider my feelings as well as your own."

"And what exactly have you compromised on to fit in with my feelings, Lee?"

"I compromise all the time. I put up with this kind of shit when I've got a hundred other things that I should be doing. If you think you've been so great at it, then tell me exactly what you've done." he yelled.

"I'm having this frakking baby for you aren't I!" she screamed back at him.

"Wait, did you just call our child 'this frakking baby'. That's callous even for you. I thought you wanted this baby."

"No, no, yes, I don't know. I probably will later on, but right now all it is to me is no vipers and almost constant nausea. You knew that I didn't want to do this now. I needed time to get used to being a wife and to come to terms with some things in my past before we started a family, but you still pressured me into it."

"I never pushed you to get pregnant."

"No, you just gave me that look of resignation when I said that I didn't want to have a baby, and then you'd get this look of dejection on your face every month when I got my period. For a man who keeps most of his emotions hidden you can give pretty clear signals when you want to. So I just gave in and let myself get pregnant. I thought that if I gave you the child you so obviously wanted it might help things." He looked at her incredulously.

"I can't believe that you thought you could use a baby as a pawn in our marriage. How could you think that it would help if you really didn't want it? Why didn't you talk to me and tell me how you felt?"

"Because you don't listen to me, Lee. You just hear what you want to hear and see the worst in everything I do. Well I'm sick of it. You say that I don't respect you; well you can't expect your wife to show you respect if you don't show her any in return!"

"Of course I respect you! Oh this is so frakked up it's not funny. The Gods help this child if it's inherited your personality traits" he spat at her, his confusion at where this conversation was going making him lash out at her with vicious words. He should have known that she would give back as good as she got.

"That works both ways, moron: it's in serious trouble if it's got yours instead. Although, with that jealous streak I'm surprised you're not accusing me of getting pregnant by some other man, and may be I should have! Then at least the poor thing wouldn't turn out to be an anally-retentive, emotionally-stunted freak!" She yelled right in his face.

"That's low, even for you Kara."

"Yeah, well you're the one who's made me sink this far down."

He turned abruptly to leave.

"Where are you going? We're not done here."

"Yes we are, because if I don't leave now this is gonna turn violent and I won't let you lower my self-respect to the point where I'm prepared to hit a pregnant woman!" She picked up the nearest object, which just happened to be the weighty tome of the military code of conduct, and hurled it at him. It caught him on the shoulder as he stepped through the hatch and clattered to the floor, startling the people in the corridor outside.

"Well just don't expect me to be here when you come back!"

−


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

As soon as Lee disappeared, Kara took her anger out on his chair, kicking it over viciously. She then swept the neat pile of his precious reports on to the floor where they scattered into a satisfying mess. Looking around the office for her next victim she realised that people were staring at her through the still open hatch.

"What? What? Haven't you ever seen a married couple fighting before? Frak off the lot of you!" she screamed at them and everyone scampered away. Her anger at Lee was only growing, not abating and she knew that she needed to get away from this room. Without thinking too hard about what she was doing, she grabbed a flight suit from the locker. A couple of minutes later she stormed on to the flight deck like a whirlwind.

"Specialist, get that viper ready for me." The specialist in question just stared at her like a rabbit caught in the headlights. "Move!" she yelled and he jumped to it.

"Sir, what are doing?"

"Don't try to stop me chief."

"With all due respect sir, I have to. Your flight status for vipers has been revoked, not to mention that the commander would have my ass if I didn't."

"Feel free to tell him you tried." With that she swung a right hook and decked the chief with one blow before sprinting up the ladder into the cockpit. Before anyone could react she had manoeuvred the viper into the tube and launched.

As the viper shot out of Galactica, Kara gave the engines full throttle and powered away from the fleet. After the first few minutes of exhilarating flying, the red mist that had descended over her during her fight with Lee started to clear from her mind, and the kind of calm that she only got from flying returned. She knew that she shouldn't be in this viper, but this was what she needed right now; she had missed it so much in the three weeks since she had discovered that she was pregnant. She had a momentary twinge of guilt, knowing that she could be endangering the baby, but the well-being of the mother was pretty important too wasn't it? Come to think of it, this little jaunt was probably quite important for the well-being of the father as well because if she'd stayed on Galactica she probably would have killed him!

With the first need for the freedom of flying assuaged, she switched off the radio so that she couldn't be disturbed and let her mind wonder to the problem at hand. She thought back to how they had ended up married. It was all Lee's fault she decided. It had started on the Astral Queen when she had returned, bruised and broken, from Caprica. He had found her playing with her pyramid ball, feeling sorry for herself, and had tried to do his best agony aunt impression. Thinking back to his words to her then still made her smile.

"I'm your friend, I love you," he had said. She was just digesting these words and figuring out a way to tease him about them, when he had come round and sat next to her on the bench. He had taken her hand in his, stroking his thumb across her palm. The instant comfort she had felt from that simple gesture had given her pause.

"Come on Kara, talk to me."

"Did you just say that you love me?"

"Course I love you; you're the best friend I have left in the whole damned universe. Actually, after what I've done in the past weeks you're probably the only friend I have left. You're hurting and I can't bare that."

He had looked at her with such a mixture of sadness, remorse and love in his beautiful blue eyes that the whole sorry story had come pouring out, from moaning his name with Baltar, to her treatment by the Cylons and her promise to Sam. When she had managed to stop sobbing she realised that telling him had given her a cathartic sense of relief. It felt immeasurably better to have shared these painful experiences with someone, instead of bottling them up as she would normally have done. It was especially true when that someone was Lee: she couldn't really imagine herself opening up to anyone else in the same way. Each comforting stroke of his hand up and down her back had given her back a little bit more peace.

"Oh Gods Kara, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. What can I do? How can I make it better?" he had asked.

"Hold me Lee, just hold me."

He had kissed her then and the Gods help her she had kissed him back with everything that she had. She had let him take control for once and he had lead her to his quarters. Without saying a word he had stripped off her dirty clothes and scrubbed every inch of her under the shower, almost instinctively knowing that she needed to wash away every last speck of Caprican dirt to start the healing process. The wounds on her abdomen were still raw and his hand trembled as he cleaned them. After he had towelled her dry he had lead her to his rack. They had lain together for sometime, just holding each other. The holding had turned to touching and kissing and then he had made love to her with such gentle tenderness that she couldn't stop crying for ten minutes after it was over, until he joked lightly that he'd never had quite such a negative effect on a woman before. The barriers that she had put up around her heart to protect herself from feeling too much for Lee Adama had come crashing down: She knew that she was in serious trouble from that moment on.

When they had gone down to Kobol she had kept as close to him as possible. The way he made her feel made her realise how superficial, though intense, her feelings for Sam Anders had been. Sam had been what she needed to relieve the tension of being on Caprica, but Lee was what she needed to rebuild her life after her experiences at the hands of the Cylons. He made her feel safe which was ironic really because their relationship had always been anything but 'safe': A relationship with Sam was safe, with Lee she knew that she was playing with fire. They had skirted around a deeper relationship than just friends for so long and for so many reasons, many of them relating to Zak, but also because their personalities were so different that she was scared that one or other of them, more probably both, was bound to get hurt. But she no longer had the strength, the willpower or indeed the desire to fight it or run from it any longer. She was just going to let herself feel and love and be loved in the way she'd always dreamed about, and frak the consequences.

After they had been reconciled with his father and returned to the fleet they let their feelings have free reign. They were totally caught up in the romance of finally getting past the past and giving in to their feelings for each other. Lee for once let go of his inhibitions and showed her what a wonderful, passionate man he could be and likewise she didn't pull away from their burgeoning relationship as it intensified. There was no question that they were completely in love with each other; nobody on Galactica could doubt it and they didn't really care about it being public knowledge. She was so drunk with happiness at finally being with him that when he proposed three weeks later, saying that there wasn't any point in waiting in their uncertain existence, she had said yes. The old man, still in the throes of his need to keep his family together after his near-death experience, had agreed and within a week they were married. Now here she was nine months later, married, pregnant and wondering where it had all gone wrong.

It wasn't that their marriage was all bad; there had been times when she had been so happy that she had to pinch herself to believe that it was true, but those times were getting rarer. The first year of marriage was supposed to be the hardest, but was it supposed to be this difficult? It was much harder than she thought it would be. It didn't help that, working as closely together as they did, they had to conduct their relationship in front of everybody, without the luxury of ever really being alone together outside of their bedroom. There was always someone demanding the CAG's attention or needing Starbuck to sort this or that out. It was like living in a goldfish bowl, a rusty metal goldfish bowl. In the seething maelstrom of bravado, fear and exhaustion that seemed to be the permanent state of existence for Galactica's air group, the differences in their personalities were starting to hold sway over their feelings for each other. What they needed was some quiet time to be able to talk to each other calmly and rationally about what was happening to their relationship, but it wasn't like they could just take a second honeymoon; they hadn't really even had a first one! Yet as Kara sat in her borrowed viper and thought about all that had gone wrong, her anger drained away because she also knew that there was a lot that was right. She felt deep within her that they were meant to be together and that didn't scare her any more the way that it used to. She wasn't about to give up on their relationship just because things were a bit rocky: she'd never given up on anything in her life because it was too hard. She resolved to fight as hard as she could to keep their marriage alive and to make it flourish, because at the end of the day she knew that it was worth it, that Lee was worth it. She just needed to be able to get him to acknowledge that there was a problem and not to ignore the emotional turmoil between them like he normally would, but to address it before it festered into something more damaging and destructive. She wondered if they could ever actually do that without resorting to arguing: maybe she should get the old man to referee. She smiled at the thought, but then the smile faded. He was going to be very disappointed in her for this little lapse in discipline and she hated that. Why did she always seem to do things that disappointed these Adama men? Tears welled up in her eyes at the thought but she quelled them ruthlessly. Frakking hormones! Adama was probably going to be so pissed off with her for this little viper trip that he would send her straight to the brig when she got back. Still, at least it was quiet there: may be they could work it out if she and Lee talked to each other with the bars in between them for protection!

Having resolved all this with herself she decided to forget about these problems for a few moments and just enjoy being in a viper for a little while longer: she expected it to be a long time before she got to fly one again.

−


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Lee pounded the punch bag to within an inch of its life. He was supposed to be on duty, not in the gym, but if he didn't get the aggression out of his system before he went back to work who knew what might happen. He'd never met anyone who frustrated him and delighted him as much at the same time as Kara. He loved her, he really did; loved her like he'd never loved any woman before, but she also had an ability to push his buttons like no one else. Their relationship seemed to consist of huge peaks and deep troughs: it was either really good or really bad. For a man who liked his life to be on an even keel it was very hard to adapt to. And now she had said that she didn't want their baby. What was he going to do about that? He blew out his cheeks and threw a few more punches, feeling emotionally out of his depth and not knowing who to turn to for help. Normally it would have been his friend Kara, but that wasn't a possibility this time.

"_Captain Adama to CIC, pass the word for Captain Adama._"

Lee wiped the sweat from his face and shrugged on his jacket before jogging to CIC. As he entered he immediately picked up on the tense atmosphere. His father regarded him with his patented piercing stare that was guaranteed to reduce lesser men to a pile of quivering jelly.

"Captain, would you mind telling me why a pilot whose flight status has been revoked has made an unscheduled launch in a viper."

"I…er…um…who?" asked Lee with a sense of foreboding.

"Who do you think?" chimed in Colonel Tigh.

"She wouldn't….frak…she wouldn't!" Lee grabbed the console tightly, knuckles white. He didn't know whether the sudden pain in his chest was from anger or fear for his wife and child. "Didn't anyone try to stop her?"

"The chief is nursing a fractured cheek bone."

"Oh Gods."

"She won't answer the radio hails. You need to get her to come in," his father ordered.

"I'm the last person she's gonna listen to right now, sir. If she won't answer you then she won't answer anyone." If anything his father's expression became even sterner.

"Captain, my quarters now! Colonel you have the ship."

Lee followed his father as he strode out of CIC and down Galactica's corridors. When they reached his quarters his father spoke in that quiet, controlled manner that told Lee that they were in serious trouble.

"When I let you and Kara marry each other you promised me that it wouldn't affect your jobs. I've let the fact that one of my most experienced pilots is out of the air go because, as Laura Roslin is constantly reminding me, we need to have as many babies as possible if humanity is to survive, but I can't let this go, Lee. She has injured a crew member and stolen a piece of military equipment, not to mention that she's uselessly wasting some of our precious fuel reserves and putting the life of my grandchild at risk."

"I know, sir, I know. We…we had a fight and I guess I kind of stormed out before we'd finished."

"That explains why she's out there but it doesn't make it any better. You were both on duty which means that you let your personal lives disrupt your jobs."

"Does it make it any better if I tell you that the argument started about training evaluations?" asked Lee, hopefully. His father sighed.

"No it doesn't. How do you get from something so trivial to the point where Kara's gone AWOL?"

"I don't know, dad, I just don't know any more." Lee put his head in his hands while his father regarded him silently. "It seems that whatever we discuss causes an argument at the moment, be it training evals or the baby." He looked up at his father. Could he do this? Could he really talk to this man about something so personal? He'd never thought of his father as a confidant before, but suddenly it seemed like the most natural thing in the world. He couldn't quite grasp how they had come to this point, but he was very glad that they had.

"Can I talk to you, dad? Not as Commander Adama, but as Lee Adama's dad? I really need someone to talk to." To Adama, the unconscious pleading look in his eyes as he stared up at his father made him look just as he did when he was a boy.

"Of course you can, son," his father replied gruffly.

"Kara….Kara thinks our marriage isn't working."

"I admit that I was afraid of this. The pair of you are so different, but I thought that your friendship would help you work it out but it obviously hasn't. I don't know what to tell you, son, but recognising there is a problem is half way to fixing it."

"She said that she doesn't want the baby. You don't think that's why she's gone out in a viper do you? You know, to try and get rid of it?"

"No, if there was any other thought apart from blowing off some steam by flying I'd be surprised. Besides, I expect this baby's going to be born already able to fly a viper! I presume that she only said that in the heat of the argument?" Lee nodded. "I don't condone her actions, but look at it from her point of view, son. This is an enormous thing for her that's affecting her whole life. You should take it as a sign of how much she feels for you that she's prepared to do it. She's grounded from vipers, she's got the Lords only know what hormones surging though her body, making her feel like she's never felt before, and you're giving her grief about training evals. No wonder she lashed out!" Lee smiled slightly in relief, acknowledging that his father was probably right.

"Look, I'll tell you what I think: you can take it or leave it." His father went on. "You know each other well, but I'm not sure that you really understand one another. You're driven by logic, order and control. Your role as CAG and your private life are kept separate, compartmentalised in you mind. Kara doesn't work like that; she only thinks with her heart. The things she loves; you, flying, they're all wrapped up together. She doesn't separate them. So when you, as her CAG, reprimand her for something she's done as Lieutenant Thrace she equates that with Lee being disappointed with Kara. Starbuck may be supremely confident as a pilot and a soldier, but Kara's confidence as a woman is incredibly fragile. She's been raised at the school of hard knocks and that has made her resilient but prone to self-doubt and guilt. I've watched her as perhaps you can't. Your opinion means everything to her; you can dash her with just a couple of careless words but when you say something good to her, her smile could light up the whole of Galactica."

"But we really love each other, dad; that should be enough to make a good marriage, shouldn't it?"

"Gods, you're your mother's son!"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"She said the same thing to me when I tried to tell her how hard our life together was going to be, that my job would often take me away. She just smiled at me and said that it wouldn't be a problem because we loved each other and that was all that mattered, but it wasn't enough for her and it isn't enough for you. You're an idealist, just like she was. You have this perfect vision of how something should be and when it doesn't come up to that vision you think it's a failure. A good marriage doesn't come ready gift-wrapped when you exchange your vows, Lee; you have to work at it and develop it and that takes time and patience, something the pair of you have undoubtedly been very short of. "

"I realise that, but I don't know what else to do, dad. I've tried talking to her but we just end up fighting."

"I'm sure you've tried talking to her but have you tried just listening to her?" he asked. Lee flushed as his father unconsciously echoed Kara's accusation to him. "Look, I'm going to have to speak to her about this incident when she gets back, but then I'm giving the pair of you forty-eight hours to get off Galactica, get some down time together and sort this thing out and I'd like you to come back together and with no obvious injuries!"

"Won't that be seen as a bit nepotistic by the crew?"

"What would you do if two of your pilots were having relationship difficulties?" Lee thought about it and then nodded.

"Yeah, you're right. I'd do the same thing." He laughed ruefully. "Well this has certainly been a surprisingly enlightening discussion!"

"What, you don't think that I'm qualified to give you marital advice?"

"You have to admit that it's a tad ironic, sir." His father smiled.

"You of all people should know that I have a pretty comprehensive knowledge of how to get it wrong with your wife."

"_Action stations, action stations, set condition one throughout the fleet_." Tigh's voice interrupted them as it rang around the ship. The pair of them looked at each other for a moment before sprinting back to CIC.

"Sitrep," asked Adama tersely as soon as they arrived.

"A dozen Cylon raiders sir. ETA three minutes. The fleet has started jumping to the emergency co-ordinates." Gaeta was all efficiency.

"Where's the CAP?" asked Lee.

"They were on the other side of the fleet. They should be there in two minutes, as should the alert fighters." Gaeta glanced at Tigh. Lee caught the look.

"What aren't you telling me?" he demanded.

"Starbuck was closest sir, she's almost on them. We couldn't stop her."

"By herself? Oh Gods, not again!" As if on cue Kara's voice echoed around CIC.

"_Galactica, Starbuck, engaging Cylon raiders. Tell the CAP to hurry the frak up._"

"Dee, get her on the radio for me," ordered Adama. He took the headset from Dee.

"Starbuck, get your ass back here."

"_Too late for that, sir. I'd only get it shot off."_

"Well at least pull back to join up with the CAP."

"_They're almost here, and….yes, got another one…I'm having too much fun sir!"_

Lee swore profusely under his breath. He knew that she was in her element, that she was the best of the best in this situation, but that didn't make it any easier. He could only watch on dradis as raiders continued to disappear. His tension eased a little as the other vipers caught up with Starbuck's solitary fighter.

"All the fleet is away sir, except for the Astral Queen. They're reporting a problem with their FTL drive," reported Dee. An alarm started bleeping.

"New dradis contact. It's a Cylon basestar, sir and it's launching more raiders." Gaeta confirmed.

The new set of raiders was heading for the Astral Queen and Galactica.

"Bring us around twenty degrees to port. Prepare the starboard batteries," ordered Adama.

"_Galactica, Starbuck, we've lost two vipers. Heading to protect the Astral Queen. All vipers, on my mark break right….break, break, break."_

The sounds of the pilots echoed around CIC. The crew prepared for the potential onslaught of the basestar and its raiders with well-practiced efficiency. Lee went through the motions of the CAG's role, making sure that the deck was going to be ready for combat landings, but all the time following the progress of Kara's viper on the screens.

"_Come on people, stick with it. You don't get any awards for neatness out here. Just shoot the frakkers any way you can…..Frak….."_ Lee tensed as her line started to crackle and break up. _"Lost my starbo…..gine…...can't...control…..shit…..tell Apollo…_." Her wireless cut out completely.

"Kara," he whispered in anguish. His only hope was that her viper still appeared on dradis.

"Astral Queen is ready to jump, sir."

"Good! Get them back."

"_Galactica, this is Kat. Starbuck says she's OK but her viper can't make it back to base. She's gonna hitch a lift on the Astral Queen_."

Lee expelled the breath that he hadn't realise he was holding and briefly slumped over the console in relief. He felt his father's hand momentarily squeeze his shoulder before he moved off.

"Roger that Kat, bring everybody else home."

The final vipers came aboard as the dradis blip of the Astral Queen snapped out. The commander gave the signal and Galactica jumped to join the rest of the fleet just as the basestar bore down on them.

−


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

As Galactica came out of the jump, Lee started to think about what he was going to say to Kara when she got back. His feelings about their argument and what she had done afterwards were so mixed up that he didn't know what he was going to do when he first saw her: half of him wanted to belt her then throw her in hack and half of him wanted to hug her to him and never let her go. His thoughts were interrupted by his father asking Dee for the post-jump report on the fleet.

"All ships accounted for except one, sir."

"Which one?"

"The Astral Queen, sir. They don't appear to have made it to these co-ordinates yet."

"What?" demanded Lee, a sudden feeling of panic gripping him.

"But they definitely jumped?" asked his father.

"Yes, sir. I made sure of it before we made our jump."

"Then there must be some mistake. Find them petty officer!" Lee had moved over to Dee's station and lunged right up into her face as he shouted the order at her. She stepped back in surprise at his aggression.

"Captain, I believe that you have a pilot de-briefing to conduct." His father's calm voice came from behind him. Lee took a couple of deep, painful breaths then turned to salute the commander.

"Yes sir." He turned sharply and started to leave CIC. Adama relented slightly

"We'll send you news as soon as we have any," he said quietly to his son.

−

"Waaaaahoooo!" Kara pulled off her helmet as she celebrated a job well done: there was no feeling quite like the exhilaration of combat.

She jumped down from the viper and was just about to carry on celebrating when she had to grab the wing as a wave of dizziness and nausea rolled over her. She knelt down as her legs gave way and promptly lost the contents of her stomach.

"Ah, man, that sucks," she said as she was at last able to stand up straight again without everything spinning. She rested her hand briefly on her abdomen. "OK kid, I get the message. Just getting your revenge on poor old mama for making you fly upside down in a viper."

She looked at the solitary deckhand; a young kid who didn't look like he was old enough to shave and who was regarding her like she had two heads.

"Sorry about that: whatever you don't ever get pregnant." He looked even more startled that it was almost comical. "Don't worry; I'll be out of your hair as soon as Galactica sends the tow truck." She turned back to her viper to examine the charred mess of its rear engine mounting. Lee was going to be even more pissed off with her when he found out that it was his mark VII viper that she had 'borrowed' and got all shot up. Oh well, she thought, just another charge to add to the many that he was going to level at her.

"Um, I don't think the tow truck's coming, ma'am. I've been asked to send you to see Mr Zarek," the deckhand said fearfully, keeping a good eye on Kara's right hand: the stories of Starbuck were legion in the fleet.

"Huh? Since when have officers of the colonial fleet been at Tom Zarek's beck and call?"

"I don't know nothin' ma'am. That's just what they told me."

She huffed and left the deck in the direction she remembered Zarek's command quarters were located. When she got there everything seemed to be in chaos. The man in question was at the centre, firing off orders left and right. She barged through and got right in his face.

"Zarek! What do you want? I need to get back to Galactica."

"Lieutenant Thrace, a pleasure as always. Thanks for your help with those raiders just now." She scowled but took his outstretched hand. A number of the motley looking crew around him murmured in agreement and started to clap. Touched, but embarrassed, she acknowledged them with a raised hand and a nod. Zarek went on. "We'd all like to get back with Galactica and the fleet but unfortunately neither of them seems to be here."

"What do you mean they're not here?"

"We are the only ship at this location."

"Well whoever you have on navigation obviously made some sort of major frak up with the FTL co-ordinates. Just jump us to the right ones."

"We have the correct co-ordinates unfortunately, lieutenant: I've had them triple checked. It appears to be a continued problem with our FTL drive. Our engineers are working on it as we speak."

"Well they'd better frakking well sort it out asap."

"Of course. In the meantime I can offer you the hospitality of the Astral Queen." He ignored her smirk and ironically raised eyebrow. "I believe that the quarters captain Adama used during his last stay are still empty. Do you need someone to show you the way?" She gave him a look at this blandly polite question: he was well aware that she knew exactly where those quarters were.

"No, I know the way. Fine…well…thanks," she said, grudgingly. "Let me know as soon as the FTL's fixed."

A few minutes later she stomped into the quarters and immediately flung off her flight suit. She stepped into the shower and let out a sigh of pleasure: hot water just as she remembered it. Trust Zarek; no tepid showers for him or his men like the crew of Galactica had to endure.

Once she was dry and dressed again she lay down on the rack and allowed herself to contemplate the latest situation that she found herself in. Could her life get any more frakked up? She'd had a major bust up with Lee, but now, when she was all ready to make it up with him, she was stuck in about the worst place that she could be in the whole fleet. This was the room in which they'd first made love and taken those first tentative steps towards their current relationship. Given that she'd only recently been sitting in her viper thinking of that very time, the memories were acute. If she really kidded herself she fancied that she could still detect his scent on the pillow. She grabbed it to her and inhaled deeply; she might have to resort to her imagination for sometime, because if they couldn't fix the FTL drive then she had no idea when she was going to see him again.

−

Three days; it had been three days since they'd lost the Astral Queen. Three days in which Lee hadn't eaten and hardly slept.

They had sent out endless raptor patrols to search the system but still no sign of the missing ship. And now one of the raptors had met with a patrol of Cylon raiders. The fleet was preparing to move on again, which decreased the odds of the Queen finding them even further. He sat in a meeting with his father, Tigh and Gaeta and also the president and Billy while they discussed the futility of continuing the search as if they were just calling of the search for a lost dog. He just zoned out, knowing that if he spoke at all it would only be in anger and pain and disillusionment. Every now and then one of them sent him a sympathetic glance, but it was as if they were half glad that he wasn't participating. This wasn't like the last time Kara had been lost: at least then they had some clues where to search. Even his father seemed to be accepting that there was nothing more to be done. He couldn't believe that they were giving up so easily, although he had a horrible feeling that it might have something to do with the president's barely-concealed relief at the possibility of being rid of Tom Zarek.

The meeting started to break up; he hadn't even realised that they had finished. His father grasped him lightly on the shoulder.

"Come on, son. We need to talk." He got up and shuffled after his father and followed him to his quarters. He slumped down on to the couch and rubbed his hands over his stubbled, drawn face, trying to alleviate the tired, gritty feeling in his eyes. His father handed him a glass of water.

"You we very quiet in the meeting, Lee." Adama chose as his opening gambit.

"Yeah. So?"

"Did you listen to the discussion at all?"

"I heard all I needed to. Bottom line: we're abandoning them."

"Think things through logically, son and tell me if there are any other options."

"What, other than never give up hope and never leave?"

"I need feasible realities, Captain, not wishful thinking."

"Oh yes, 'cos the Gods forbid William Adama would ever do something irrational to save someone he loved," Lee snapped.

"That's not fair son and you know it."

"Sorry, dad….it's just…just….sorry." He let out an enormous sigh and covered his eyes with his hands for a few moments. Then he squared his shoulders and looked directly at his father.

"OK, so we know the easy option isn't gonna work. If they'd just got the co-ordinates wrong they would have been here ages ago and we know that they did have the right co-ordinates because Gaeta has checked the transmission logs. So, right now that means that at least they know where we are, which is a plus. They obviously can't get here so that leaves two possibilities. Something went majorly wrong with their FTL or ship during the jump and they were destroyed, flew into a star, etc; ergo, they're gone. Or, if we take the more optimistic view, there was some ship malfunction or other catastrophe that is preventing them from jumping here for the time being. We have no way of finding them, but they have a starter in that they know this location. That plus point only lasts until we move." He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. "So to have any hope of them following us we need to find some way of leaving a message behind for them that doesn't give our new position away to the Cylons should they intercept it."

"Good. Exactly. You're thinking like an officer again. Now all you have to do is figure me out a way to do just that which doesn't involve a lot of resources or manpower; so no, you cannot stay behind here forever and a day in a raptor hoping against hope that Kara will somehow appear." Lee smiled sadly, knowing that this was exactly what he wanted to do. "We're not moving for another twelve hours, so let me know what you come up with before then and if I think it'll work, I'll swing it with the president." Lee nodded and stood up.

"Thanks, dad." His father didn't say anything: his expression said it all. They took comfort in a brief, fierce hug before Lee left with a salute.

−

Kara paced the command of the Astral Queen as the ship's chief engineer explained the problem with the FTL.

"I think it's only taking us a few degrees off but basically we can't trust it: there's a disconnect between the co-ordinates entered into the computer and where we end up. It's a frakking miracle that we didn't end up in the middle of a planet."

"So we could be very close to the fleet?" asked Zarek.

"Yup, or not! Who knows! We don't have any charts for this region of space on board so we have no way of making even an educated guess on our location. We've made enough jumps in this system over the past week to find the fleet if they're here, but no sign of them. We can't go on doing that forever: we're down to only enough fuel reserves for two more jumps."

"OK so that's the problem. Why can't you just fix it?" asked Kara.

"Well it's a complicated repair, but I could do it if I had the parts."

"Right, so just poach the parts from another FTL drive and fix it already!" she spat out, barely hanging on to her temper.

"The only other ship we have on board is a shuttle without FTL capabilities."

"OK, so we need to find somewhere to get fuel and parts even though we have no frakking clue where we are. Great!" Kara sat back in frustration and let Zarek and his cronies fire questions and ideas at the engineer. She let her mind wander and tried to think what the commander would do in this situation. Suddenly an idea started to form in her brain. It might not be what the commander would do but it was damn well the type of insane plan that Kara Thrace would pull off! If it worked it might not only solve there current predicament, but also keep a promise that had been nagging away at her for the best part of a year.

"What about going back to Caprica?" she said suddenly, claiming everyone's attention immediately.

"Caprica! Are you mad? It's a nuclear wasteland over run with Cylons."

"Yes, but there's also a resistance movement of survivors fighting against the Cylons. Look, if we try to jump to Caprica at least it's a part of space we're familiar with. We can pick a spot where we less likely to hit anything if we get it wrong: all we need to do is get close enough. We know where we can get fuel and parts: the colonial fleet base at Delphi, and at the same time we might be able to do something good for humanity and rescue people."

"With no control over the FTL we could also jump into the middle of the planet or the Cylon fleet," raised the engineer.

"There's going to be risk involved in whatever we do. If anyone's got any other risk-free suggestions then let's hear them."

Zarek looked at her for several moments then looked around at his lieutenants. Some looked distrustful or even fearful, but the majority were nodding, albeit reluctantly.

"Caprica it is then."

−

**Author's note**: Ha! Just when you thought Kara was going to get home safe and sound! Hope you liked this new development.

**IMPORTANT**: I'm now contemplating something of an experiment. I have two different versions of this story from this point onwards, at different places on the angst-o-meter. Rather than pick one over the other I thought I might do both simultaneously. I can't decide whether it would be better to put them up as alternative chapters in the same stroy or whether that would be too confusing and it would be better to post a separate copy of the story and update both simultaneously. I would welcome your thoughts on whether you like this idea at all and if so which option you think might work better. Many thanks for your help.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Kara was on the Astral Queen's hanger deck doing last minute checks of the shuttle before its departure for the mission to Caprica. The last few days of planning the op had been especially hard work for her as the only "professional" soldier on board, but she had been somewhat surprised and impressed by the enthusiasm and determination shown by Zarek's men. She felt that they had the plan as good as it was going to get. Two teams had been selected: one to conduct the supply raid on the old fleet base and one to hunt for survivors. She had targeted herself to lead that second team. She moved to check all the weaponry that they had collected: it was certainly an impressive pile for a prison ship, but she wasn't going to complain. This was another thing that had impressed her about the set up on the Astral Queen: as soon as Zarek had backed her word that none of them would be held up on charges for possessing illegal weapons, the stuff had started to come out. His word certainly was law around here. It was obvious that the inhabitants of the Astral Queen had been partaking freely in the black market run out of the Prometheus before that operation had been cut down. She knew that you could still get Stogies and fine ambrosia if you had the right contacts, but she was pretty sure rocket launchers weren't freely available any more! She was strapping on various pieces of additional weaponry to her flight suit when Tom Zarek appeared beside her.

"What are you doing lieutenant?"

"What does it look like, Zarek? Getting ready to lead the rescue mission of course."

"I don't think so," he said in a voice that brooked no refusal. She looked up at him, anger in her face and a sharp retort on her lips but he stalled her. "Good news travels fast around the fleet," he said pointedly, glancing down. She flushed, knowing exactly what he was referring to. She hadn't told anyone on the Astral Queen that she was pregnant, with the exception of Joe the deckhand and he was too stupid and too frightened of her to tell anyone else. But of course Tom Zarek would know: he would know if anyone on Galactica so much as broke wind inappropriately.

"That's no concern of yours. I'm making my own choice," she said quietly.

"But you see it is a concern for me. Besides the obvious moral issue, if…when we get back to the fleet I don't want to have to face your husband knowing that I didn't stop his pregnant wife from going into a nuclear fall out zone and getting an unhealthy dose of radiation. Despite what people might think, I have a very healthy respect for Captain Adama; there is more strength and steel there than people give him credit for. He's also able to hold a grudge better and longer than just about anyone I've ever met and I really don't want to be the brunt of that again. And I don't even want to think about what the commander's reaction might be. So no, lieutenant, you will not be going down onto the surface of Caprica."

As much as she hated to admit it Zarek was right: Lee would never forgive her if she did this and to be honest she doubted whether she would be able to forgive herself. She had been deliberately ignoring this particular issue in the face of her overwhelming desire to be part of the rescue. But she couldn't escape the fact that, while she might still only be grudgingly accepting her pregnancy, the baby had started to take on a whole new significance to her when it might be all that she had left of its father. However, the simple fact of the matter was that they didn't have enough trained hands for her not to be involved and she wasn't going to give in to Zarek easily: he needed to know that he couldn't expect her just to follow his orders like his bunch of tame ex-cons.

"And just who the frak is going to lead the mission if I don't?"

"Relax lieutenant. This is essentially a smash and grab job and you have a team of guys who've made whole careers out of that type of activity."

"Yeah, well if they're all so good at it how come this lot all got caught?"

"Everyone has an off day. If you're such a good pilot, how come you allowed a Cylon to damage your viper so that you ended up stuck with us?" She had to admit that he had a point.

"OK, OK, but the shuttle's got shielding, right?" Zarek nodded. "I'm still gonna fly the team in."

"But then you'll stay on board?"

"Yeah." He continued to look at her pointedly. "I promise, OK! Cross my heart and hope to die, scout's honour. Do you want me to swear it in blood?" She huffed when he kept on staring at her. "I don't want to loose this baby," she finally admitted. He nodded, seemingly satisfied.

"Let's go and get this show on the road, lieutenant."

−

Kara was taking the team's questions as the formal briefing on the op wound up.

"How will we know who's resistance and who's Cylon."

"Good question. Any pyramid fans here?" she asked. A few voices spoke up. "The resistance is being lead by what remains of the Caprican buccaneers."

"You're kidding me? No shit! I was one of their biggest fans: box seats every season until I got banged up."

"Yeah, well consider this groupie heaven time." She took off her dog tag and gave it to the C-buck fan. "Show this to Sam Anders; if he sees this he'll know you're genuine and that you're with me: he should have one like it." Zarek's eyebrow rose at this revelation but she ignored him. "What's you're name soldier?" He squared his shoulders and attempted to come to attention as she had known he would.

"Smith, sir." She almost laughed. How many times had he automatically given that name when questioned by authority? He smirked, seeming to know what she was thinking. "No, it really is sir, Stan Smith."

"Well Smith, you should call me Starbuck when we're in the field. That goes for the rest of you as well. You've got thirty minutes after we land to get in and out with as many survivors as possible. Remember that if you're not back in forty five minutes, I'm taking off regardless. This shuttle will take twenty in total but we'll cram more in if necessary. Everyone set?"

"Yes, sir," they chorused.

−

Everyone held their breath as the Astral Queen came out of its FTL jump. There was a collective sigh of relief as the space around them proved to be mercifully free of Cylon ships. Despite the grumbles of the engineer about the risk of missing their target point, they were only about an hours flying time away from Caprica. Although this was probably ample time for the Cylons to detect them, it was about the best that they could have hoped for. The supply team were going to land the Astral Queen directly in the Delphi base as this was the easiest and quickest route to the supplies they needed, especially the fuel. It was going to be risky but they did have a few tricks up their sleeve if the Cylons attacked them: the Queen was not unarmed!

Kara gave a last check to the Queen's pilot and took the shuttle out of the hanger deck before the Queen entered Caprica's atmosphere. They were going to land simultaneously, hoping that the bigger ship would distract any Cylon attention away from the shuttle. This ploy was looking successful as she brought the shuttle in for a text book landing in the clearing by the Delphi Union School.

"OK guys, go, go, go!"

"Ay, ay Starbuck."

The outer hatch slammed and she was left alone to twiddle her thumbs for what she hoped would only be half an hour. She looked around out of the window: it was quiet; too quiet for her liking.

The time seemed to pass agonisingly slowly. Gods, she wished that she could have been out there with them! Suddenly the silence was broken by the unmistakeable sound of gunfire. She looked out but couldn't tell where it was coming from. Then she saw flashes of metal: Cylon centurions started to appear out of the trees around the clearing. Now was her chance to do something useful as she geared up the guns that they had rigged to the shuttle and fired them at the approaching Cylons. She saw some of her team emerge into the clearing, closely pursued by centurions. She took out the toasters with a satisfying explosion and then moved to start the engines and lower the hatch.

"Come on, come on." Kara muttered under her breath. She had the engines running and was watching the centurions get ever closer.

"We're all aboard, Starbuck," came a shout from the cabin.

"Well about frakking time."

She didn't need a second invitation and took off immediately, heading directly for their rendezvous point. There was no time to find out if the rescue had been a success: if they didn't get back to the Astral Queen in time it was going to be the shortest rescue in history. She relaxed slightly as the Astral Queen came into view, but that was short lived as she caught site of a basestar launching raiders on a rapid intercept course. She radioed the Queen as soon as she came within range of the hanger deck.

"We're aboard. Get us the frak out of here!"

She felt the familiar lurch of the FTL jump as she touched the shuttle down on the hanger deck. Letting out a sigh of relief she shouted back into the cabin.

"How d'ya do?"

She turned to see a well-remembered face in the hatchway. A slow smile lit up her face.

"Hello Sam."

"Hello yourself. I was wondering where you were."

"Yeah? Well someone's gotta drive the getaway car."

He moved further into the cockpit and sat in the co-pilots chair. He took her hand in a strong clasp then placed her dog tags in her palm.

"I'd kinda given up on you: thought you weren't coming back. It's nice to be wrong about that."

"Well I was in the area, thought I'd drop by and see how you were doing, see what you'd done with the old place." She tried to cover her emotion with a joke. Sam wasn't fooled and raised a hand to stroke her cheek. She relented.

"Things were kind of frakked up when I got back to the fleet: a lot of bad things had happened while I was away. Everyone was so focused on getting us out of a shit hole of our own making that I couldn't get them too interested in the idea of a rescue. I'm really sorry that it took so long, Sam. How many of you…?"

"We lost a lot in our last attack on a Cylon farm. We were down to eight, but we lost another two in the fight to get to the shuttle, so I guess you rescued a whole glorious half dozen."

"Half a dozen is a hell of a lot better than none at all. I'm just glad that you were amongst them." He looked at her and smiled. He looked thinner and older than she remembered, but that was hardly surprising given what he'd obviously been through.

"It's good to see you Kara."

"It's good to see you too Sam."

"Well then get over here and show me how good." He leant over to kiss her on the lips but she turned away so that he only caught her cheek. It was then that he noticed the wedding ring. He took hold of her left hand and ran his finger over the thin gold band.

"Looks like we've got some catching up to do. I see not everything that happened after you got back was bad."

"Yeah...um...look Sam….."

"Not now Kara, I'm kinda tired and I need to check on the guys. We'll talk later." He got up abruptly and left the shuttle.

−

Kara gave Sam a couple of hours and then went looking for him: she desperately wanted to get everything straight with him. She found him lying in a rack, hands behind his head and obviously not sleeping. She sat down on the edge of the rack and looked down at her hands as she unconsciously twisted her wedding ring around on her finger.

"Tell me; were you with this guy when we were together on Caprica?" he asked.

"No, not in the conventional sense. I've known him a long time, but we'd always shied away from anything deeper than friendship. Although I suppose deep down I kind of knew that I was in love with him, I just didn't want to acknowledge it. When I got back to the fleet I…I realised that he was what I wanted, what I needed. I'm sorry Sam; I didn't mean to lead you on. What we had together on Caprica was great, but Lee….as much as I hate to admit it I know now that Lee already had my heart." Sam nodded in what he hoped looked like an understanding way.

"Oh well, you win some, you loose some," he said lightly, to try and hide his disappointment. The memory of Kara and what they had shared had been something that had kept him going all these months. She leant over and hugged him; he allowed himself the comfort of hugging her in return.

"Thanks," she mumbled in to his chest.

"So how come you're on this ship, not Galactica?" She explained how she had become marooned on the Astral Queen after a run in with the Cylons.

"Now that we've got the parts to fix the FTL we hope to be able to find the fleet again."

"What are the odds of that?"

"Getting smaller by the day," she said sadly.

"You'll find them, Kara…..find him."

"I really hope so."

"You know I'm here for you if we don't?" She nodded in thanks and then took a deep breath knowing that she needed to make a clean breast of everything.

"I'm having his baby, Sam." His eyes widened in surprise at this revelation, but then a slow smile spread across his face.

"Well we'll just have to try harder to find him then, won't we!"

"Yeah, not gonna let the son of a bitch get out of changing diapers after he went and got me pregnant!" she replied in kind.

"That's the spirit!" he winked at her. "So, I understand one of my rescuers is the greatest Buck's fan that ever lived, or so he told me." He switched the conversation onto safer grounds and squashed down his disappointment: he thought he could settle with just being her friend.

−


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Whilst they waited for the FTL to be repaired, Kara and Sam caught up on all that had happened to them in the intervening time between Kara's two trips to Caprica. He told her of their successes and failures in their quest to destroy as many of the Cylon farms as possible. She told him about finding the tomb of Athena on Kobol, but also of the petty issues that had plagued the fleet in the past year: the insurrectionists, the black market, the exposure of Gaius Baltar as a Cylon collaborator and the hard fought presidential election which Laura Roslin had narrowly won over Tom Zarek. It all seemed so pathetic and sordid in comparison with the purity of the resistance's noble quest. But what was past was past and, as Sam pointed out to her, what they needed to focus on now was getting back to the fleet.

Kara took Sam to the hanger deck to show him her viper. She was surprised to see Joe the deckhand working diligently at the back of the plane, sorting out the charred remains of the starboard engine. He looked so young and innocent that she wondered what he could have possibly done to get himself banged up with some of the miscreants that were on the Astral Queen. She called to him and he immediately jumped up like a frightened rabbit when he heard her voice.

"Starbuck…I...I...er... hope you don't mind me trying some repairs."

"Only if you know something about the mechanics of a viper."

"I've never worked on a viper before, but it's just an engine, right? That's what I did in prison: worked in the mechanics shop. Gaffer said I had a natural talent."

"Well if you have a natural talent for mechanics you'd know that this is not just an engine: the viper mark VII is a thing of beauty." She ran an admiring hand over the sleek wing of the fighter. "Isn't she beautiful, Sam?"

"It's Apollo's plane," he pointed out, gesturing to the lettering below the cockpit.

"Yup, and I love them both, but of course he is a very close second!" she said with an evil smile. Sam just grinned back at her.

"I sure wish I could fly one like you, Starbuck," said Joe in a voice filled with awe. He gazed at her with what she realised was a severe case of hero worship. She looked at what he had done with the engine. Frankly, anything would be an improvement on how she had left the viper after that Cylon attack, but she didn't really trust anyone with her birds other than Tyrol and his crew. Still, needs must: if they could get the viper going then at least it was another defensive option if they ran into any toasters.

"Shall I try it?" she asked.

"Would you?" Joe replied, his voice filled with enthusiasm.

She climbed into the cockpit, winked at Sam and started the engines. After a few experimental coughs they roared into life. She checked all the settings: everything registered normal, which was definitely not how it had been when she landed.

"Frak me, Joe, you're a genius. Do you want a new job when we get back to the fleet? The chief on Galactica would love to have someone with your skills."

"Do you really think so, Starbuck?"

"Of course. Let me know and I'll put in a good word for you with chief Tyrol, but a word of advice: never say to him that it's 'just an engine' OK!"

Realising that her viper was in good hands, she and Sam went to join up with the rest of his guys in the Astral Queen's exercise area. Joe may have had a case of hero worship for Kara in the hanger bay, but here the three remaining members of the Caprican Buccaneers who had been amongst those rescued were regarded as kings. Their biggest fan, Stan Smith, had organised a few of the men to help build a pyramid court in the hope of seeing his heroes in action once again. They were just putting the finishing touches to it when Sam and Kara arrived.

Kara grabbed a ball and put it in the centre circle with intent. She stripped off her sweatshirt and sent a challenging look to Anders.

"Let's see whether you've still got it, tough guy." Sam looked at her, a frown of worry creasing his face.

"You know how rough this game can be. Do you think you should, Kara? In your condition and all." She raised her eyebrows at him.

"What are you, my mother? I'm fine," she said, frustration creeping into her voice.

"OK, but take it easy."

"I'm playing against you. What could be easier?" A grin started to spread across her face. "Not afraid that you'll get beaten by a girl again are you?"

"Why you little…."

He lunged towards the ball and they started to play. If either of them was remembering what had happened between them after the last time that they had played pyramid then it wasn't obvious to the others in the way they played. If Sam's hand occasionally lingered longer than necessary on Starbuck's body they just put it down to a desire to prevent her from getting hurt. Eventually the others joined in the game, with many of the inhabitants of the Astral Queen gathering to cheer from the sidelines.

Tom Zarek had wandered in early on in the game and was watching the interaction between Starbuck and Anders with interest. He remembered her comment about the dog tag and was intrigued by their relationship. He noticed that she now had both dog tags back on her chain. It was obvious that they had had some sort of relationship before. He also thought that there was still the desire there for more, on one side at least. As the game became more rowdy Kara sensibly stepped out and came to stand by Zarek.

"This is really good for the men, lieutenant. I'm glad that you persuaded me to go ahead with the rescue. It will also be good if we can get something more formal going when we get back to the fleet. A good colonial sport; a sign of normality."

"Except there's only half a team, Zarek. Hardly the basis for an exciting championship." He ignored her sarcasm.

"Your friend seems very pleased to see you." She pretended not to notice his pointed reference to one particular person.

"Course they would be: we've rescued them from almost certain death at the hands of the Cylons." He regarded her solemnly.

"He's in love with you, Kara." She flushed.

"You don't know what you're talking about, Zarek. And don't call me Kara. It's Starbuck or lieutenant to you."

"I'm just saying that you ought to make a choice and let him know." She held up her ring finger.

"I made my choice a long time ago, Zarek, and Sam knows that. " She relented slightly, not really wanting to acknowledge the fact that Zarek had read the situation so clearly, but wanting to stop any further speculation on his part. "He's just taking some time to adjust to it."

"You're not exactly helping." He nodded towards the pyramid court. She huffed.

"Look, you have no right to judge me. He's a friend and I…I just really need a friend right now."

Their discussion was halted by a call from the command centre that the repairs to the FTL were finished. Kara and Zarek left the pyramid players to it and headed for command. When they reached it they found the crew preparing to jump to the original co-ordinates where they hoped to find the fleet. With the jump preparations completed everyone braced themselves. There was a perceptible tension in the room as everyone wondered whether the FTL would be working correctly and whether the fleet would still be there at the end of the jump.

As soon as the jump was completed Zarek ordered a scan of the system.

"Nothing, Tom," replied his chief pilot. "The co-ordinates are correct this time but the fleet's not there."

"Damn it!"

"Scan the area for anything: wreckage, bits of waste, anything that might give us a clue to where they've gone. Get anything you find on board." Kara ordered. The pilot looked to Zarek for confirmation and he nodded.

−

Kara was pacing the hanger deck waiting for the shuttle to return. She couldn't believe that the fleet would have left without leaving them some sort of clue as to where they had gone: no, scratch that, she couldn't believe Lee would have left without leaving behind some message for her. Unless he was still mad at her. She didn't want to think too hard about that possibility.

"Kara would you slow down and quit pacing. You're driving me nuts." Sam complained.

"There has to be something, Sam. There just has to be. He….he wouldn't just leave me."

She practically dived through the hatch of the shuttle before it had properly docked. They had picked up half a dozen bits of space debris. She scanned the junk quickly then bent to pick up a familiar looking piece of metal. She turned it over and a smile spread across her face: she knew Lee wouldn't let her down. She stood smiling goofily as she clutched a piece of a mark II viper with "Lt Kara Thrace: Starbuck" painted on the side. It was plain as day that this was her husband's message to her.

−

Two hours later Kara was ready to throw the stupid piece of metal out of the airlock. She and Sam had been over every single inch of it. There was no hidden message, no map scratched into the metal, nothing except one tiny mark in the middle of her name, and that could easily have been previous damage. She knew that Lee would have had to be careful in case the debris fell into Cylon hands but did he have to be this subtle?

"Gods, I didn't think my husband had it in him to be this obscure. Textbook obvious is more his style."

"Give the guy a break, Kara. He couldn't just leave you a map with an X marking the spot could he?" replied Sam.

She grinned at him, but then her eyes went wide as an idea struck her. "Frak me, Sam; you're a genius!" She picked up the piece of viper and sprinted towards command with Sam struggling to keep up with her. As soon as she got there she accosted the man in charge of navigation.

"Briggs, can you make a scan of the outline of this and then run it against the nav files?"

"Sure Starbuck."

She stood bouncing up and down and chewing her thumb for a few anxious minutes.

"Well I'll be…..the shape corresponds exactly with the deltaron nebula."

"Ha! I knew it! Gods I love you Lee Adama. Plot a jump as close to where that mark is as you can get."

Zarek had come up to see what all the commotion was.

"Are you sure about this Starbuck?"

"As sure as I can be. And what's there to loose?"

"Alright. Let's do the jump."

−

The jump completed, again they all waited nervously for the report.

"No fleet, Tom but there is a large ship."

"Frak! A basestar?" asked Kara.

"I'm not sure."

"Well make sure and someone get plotting an emergency jump to get us out of here," she demanded.

"The large ship is hailing us, Tom. They're asking for id." Zarek's eyebrow rose at this request and he shared a look with Kara.

"Send them our colonial id codes and put them on speaker."

"Colonial vessel, colonial vessel. This is the battlestar Pegasus. We have authenticated your recognition codes. Confirm your id." There was a collective gasp around the command centre. Only Zarek seemed unperturbed.

"This is the Astral Queen, Pegasus, and you need to confirm your id to us."

"Their codes are genuine, Tom," someone confirmed for him

"We have confirmation Pegasus." Then a different voice came over the speaker: a female voice.

"Astral Queen. This is Pegasus actual. It's good to meet up with a friendly ship for once." Zarek nodded at Kara,

"Ah, Pegasus actual, this is Lieutenant Kara Thrace, call sign Starbuck, of the battlestar Galactica, but currently with the Astral Queen. You can't know how glad we are to find you."

"I'm sure you are lieutenant. Please report to me on Pegasus ASAP for a de-briefing. Pegasus out."

"Frak me, the Pegasus. I thought all the battlestars were gone. I wonder how they come to be here exactly where we thought the fleet would be." She turned to Zarek. "I'll take the viper over." He looked unhappy and was about to say something when she forestalled him. "No, Zarek, let me go first and see how the land lies. It's a military vessel and I'm military."

"It could still be a trap, Starbuck."

"Relax! Not even the Cylons can conjure up an entire battlestar."

"Just be careful."

"Hey, it's me!" she replied with a trademark smirk and skipped out of the command centre.

"That's what's making me nervous," he muttered under his breath.

−


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Kara brought her viper to a halt on the hanger deck of the Pegasus. As she reached the bottom of the ladder she was greeted by a harassed looking man carrying a clipboard.

"Welcome aboard Pegasus, sir. I'm Larry the deck chief." He ran an expert eye over Kara's viper. "Look's like you've seen some action, sir."

"Yes she has. We've done running repairs but I'd be grateful if you could give her the once over, chief."

"Happy to, sir. I've been asked to direct you to the Admiral Cain's quarters."

Kara left the deck and headed in the direction Larry had given her. It was some time since she'd been on one of the newer battlestars and the contrast with Galactica's faded glory was quite stark. She knocked on the hatch of the admiral's quarters and stepped through when she was called. She stood to attention and gave her best salute.

"Lieutenant Thrace reporting as ordered, sir." The admiral returned her salute.

"At ease, lieutenant. Welcome aboard Pegasus. It's been a long time since we found any other members of the colonial fleet who survived the attacks."

"Thank you, sir."

"Have you been on the Astral Queen all this time?"

"Um, no sir. As I mentioned, I'm stationed on the Galactica. I've been temporarily on the Queen for a few weeks since we got separated from Galactica's fleet."

"The Galactica survived the Cylon attacks?" asked the admiral in a stunned voice.

"Yes, sir. The old girl doesn't have any networked computers, so she was unaffected by the Cylon virus. We also have a civilian fleet of around 45,000 people in 60 ships."

"Is Adama still in command?"

"Yes, sir."

"Praise the Gods! I was convinced that we were the only colonial military vessel left. I can't tell you how good it is to know that we're not alone: it's a miracle!"

The admiral then fired various questions at Kara. Who were the other senior officers on board? Had they encountered the Cylons? How big was Galactica's squadron? How had they kept the fleet supplied? Who was in charge of the civilians? Kara answered all her questions as succinctly as possible. She figured the less she said, the less trouble she was likely to get herself into. Whilst this was a good tactic it wasn't entirely successful.

"Captain Adama is the CAG? The commander's own son? That's highly irregular."

"The commander didn't really have a choice, sir. Galactica's original CAG was killed when the main squadron was destroyed during the Cylon attacks. Captain Adama had been visiting for the decommissioning ceremony and after the attacks he was the most senior pilot on board and the only one even remotely qualified to be CAG."

"Hmm. So how come you weren't with the squadron when it was lost, lieutenant?"

"Ahh…I was…um... I was in hack, sir."

"What charge?"

"Striking a superior officer, sir."

"That's a serious charge. I'm surprised Commander Adama let you get away with keeping your rank, lieutenant. Care to let me know why?"

"I guess it was because he was short of pilots and I'm the best there is and the only qualified flight instructor on Galactica." It was said without any hint of arrogance, just a statement of fact. Cain nodded, acknowledging with a slight smile: she always appreciated a crew member who knew their own worth.

"And the civilians?"

"They are lead by President Laura Roslin." Cain frowned.

"The secretary of education?"

"She was the only member of President Adar's cabinet to survive the attacks, sir."

"Oh well, I suppose it was only to be expected. Now what kind of ship is the Astral Queen?" Oh Lords, how did she answer this one?

"Umm, it's a transport, sir."

"And who's in command?"

"Well there is a pilot and full crew, but if there's a commander then it's Tom Zarek."

"Tom Zarek? The Sagitarran terrorist? Wasn't he in prison?"

"Well Zarek and most of the other…er….people…on board the Astral Queen were on their way to parole hearings when the Cylons attacked."

"It's a prison transport? You've kept a ship full of prisoners alive all this time?"

"They've been pretty useful sir. We've needed manual labour on several occasions. Most of them would have finished their sentences by now and I think the president figured that we could use every human we could get when there were only a few thousand of us left. Zarek's even become a member of the Quorum for Sagitarron." The admiral studied her thoughtfully for a few moments and then she nodded.

"Well I'd like to meet with Mr Zarek on the Astral Queen as soon as it can be arranged. Now tell me lieutenant, how did you end up on a prison ship? Not as an inmate I hope." Kara laughed and explained about the Cylon attack and the problems with the Astral Queen's FTL drive.

"You've been back to Caprica?" Cain asked with interest.

"Yes, sir." Kara didn't think she needed to elaborate on the fact that she'd actually been twice.

"And?"

"It's a nuclear wasteland, sir. Nothing left."

"Damn. I was hoping that at some point we could stop these endless hit and run attacks and take our planets back."

"Sorry, sir. I'm not sure that we'd want what's left of them. That's why we've been trying to get back to Galactica's fleet, but it would appear that they've been jumping quite frequently over recent weeks. They had left us a hidden communication with the latest jump co-ordinates, so we were expecting to find Galactica here when we found Pegasus instead." Cain nodded.

"It makes sense that they've been jumping a lot. We've been tracking the Cylon fleet and they have recently stepped up their jump activity, so I imagine that they must be tracking the Galactica."

"I'd like to search this area to see if they left another marker, sir."

"What sort of marker?" How did she describe Lee's 'map' technique without it sounding incredibly amateur?

"Um…well they left a piece of viper with my name on it. It was cut in to the shape of the system they were jumping to. It's designed to look like debris to camouflage it from the Cylons. I know it sounds kinda crap, but it worked. At least sort of; I mean we didn't find them but we found Pegasus." This explanation sounded lame even to Kara. Cain just laughed.

"Well it's certainly inventive and it can't hurt to look to see if they've left another one. We can then combine it with the information we have on the movements of the Cylon fleet. Give the details to the CAG and ask him to organise a raptor search. You need to report to him anyway; he'll put you into the flight rotation"

"Um…er…..sir…you should know that my flight status for vipers isn't currently active."

Cain's mobile right eyebrow raised in question.

"I'm pregnant, sir."

"Yet you came here in a viper."

"Yes, sir, I was…um….going a bit stir crazy, not flying so I…er...borrowed a viper for bit. Then we ran into some Cylons and I ended up stuck on the Astral Queen. Guess I should have known that stunt would come back to bite me on the ass." The eyebrow shot up even further. "If you'll pardon the expression, sir."

"Don't beg pardon on my account: I like straight talking. I can't condone Commander Adama's laxity in letting his pilots get pregnant, but I suppose after all this time in space such accidents are bound to happen. Anyway, my top priority now is to find Galactica, and you can probably be of more use working with the navigation officer in CIC to review Galactica's route and identify potential locations than in a viper. Report to my XO, Colonel Blake. Tell him that I'm changing the plan: I'm no longer interested in attacking that Cylon comm relay which we discussed yesterday; I want everyone to concentrate on finding Galactica's fleet."

"Yes, sir."

"This has been interesting lieutenant. I'd like us to talk some more. I'm interested to hear what has been happening on Galactica since the attacks."

Kara did her best not to physically blanch at this prospect. Instead she nodded, saluted smartly and turned to leave.

"Lieutenant? One more thing."

"Sir?"

"You're wearing a wedding ring. Is Thrace your married name?"

"No sir."

"And your married name would be…"

"Adama, sir," replied Kara, a tell-tale blush staining her cheeks.

"Well that certainly explains a lot. Dismissed."

−

Kara accompanied Cain over to the Astral Queen. She had to be impressed with how Zarek handled the meeting. He had gathered as many of his people as possible in the hanger bay so that when the admiral stepped off the raptor it gave the impression of two great commanders meeting one another. He didn't go as far as saluting, but instead took her hand in a strong handshake.

"Admiral Cain, it's an honour to welcome you on board the Astral Queen."

"Thank you Mr Zarek. I have to confess to being somewhat surprised when lieutenant Thrace said that you were in command of this ship." Zarek shrugged deprecatingly.

"War has a habit of making the strangest bed fellows, admiral."

"Indeed it does," she replied enigmatically.

"Would you come this way? I'd like you to meet the survivors that we rescued from Caprica."

He led Cain through to the exercise hall where Sam and some of the others were playing a game of pyramid, obviously another nicely staged exhibition for the admiral. Sam came out of the game and jogged over. He stuck out his hand at the admiral and she shook it in return.

"Samuel T Anders, ma'am. Previously Captain of the Caprican buccaneers and lately leader of the resistance movement on Caprica."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr Anders. I'm just sorry that there wasn't more we could have done to help you on Caprica. If we'd known that there were survivors from the attacks then we would have gone back sooner."

"That's good of you to say ma'am, but I think we both know that the colonies are dead to us now." She nodded then continued in a lighter vein.

"But I see that you've brought a little colonial life with you." She gestured to the pyramid court. "Although I have to admit that I was more of a Tigers fan."

"Well I suppose somebody had to be, but I'll forgive you." He almost winked at her. The admiral blinked at him and Kara was ready to sink through the floor. "Perhaps we could organise a game between the two crews," he suggested.

"I think that's a very good idea Mr Anders. We could do with a good morale booster," she replied with a slight smile and moved off with Zarek.

When they had gone Kara grabbed Sam roughly by the arm.

"God's Sam! She's not a groupie. You can't flirt with her!" she hissed at him.

"A little charm never hurts when you're being introduced to a woman, Kara."

"She's an admiral, Sam; she doesn't do charm!"

"Are you jealous?"

"Jealous? Tssk! Do me a favour and get over yourself! I'm just trying to stop you from getting an unfriendly visit from her marines."

−

Kara was in her quarters collecting the few meagre belongings that she had gathered since being marooned on the Astral Queen. She was slipping "Lee's" pillow into her bag when she was interrupted by a quick knock on the hatch. Before she could reply Zarek stepped through and closed the hatch behind him.

"Starbuck."

"Zarek. What can I do for you?"

"Cain's asked for a full inventory of the ship and a listing of personnel. Not the usual 'how many people, have you got enough water' type of questions, but weapons, parts and skills. Any ideas why?"

"Not a clue. She probably just wants to assess the capabilities of the ship so that she knows what Pegasus is taking on."

"Well I don't like it." She had to admit that it did seem kind of strange.

"Look, I'll see what I can find out."

"Thanks. And Starbuck." She looked up at him. "Take care of yourself over there."

−

Zarek's words rolled around Kara's head as they travelled back to Pegasus. He wasn't a man to get easily spooked and if anyone could tell when someone was planning something underhand then it was him. As soon as she got back on Pegasus she started to ask a few discrete questions. She didn't like what she found out. No one was explicit, but reading between the lines it was clear that Pegasus had had a civilian fleet; not as big as Galactica's but survivors of the attacks all the same. It seemed that they had been stripped of everything worthwhile and abandoned. She wasn't sure what she could do if that was Cain's intention with the Astral Queen, but she knew that she couldn't just sit around and let it happen.

She straightened her newly acquired uniform and knocked on the admiral's quarters for the second time that day.

"What can I do for you, lieutenant?" Cain asked, obviously surprised to see her. Kara didn't beat about the bush, but just came right out with her concern.

"Can I ask you what you intend to do with the Astral Queen, sir?"

"Why do you ask, lieutenant?"

"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"And if I deny it?" Kara squirmed for a moment.

"I'll probably go ahead and say it anyway, sir."

"Are you trying to get a trip to the brig, lieutenant?"

"Well it's always nice to add a new one to my collection."

"Thinking of writing a guide book?"

"Yes, I intend to produce the seminal work!" Cain laughed at her audacity.

"Alright, Thrace, go ahead."

"I've learnt that Pegasus had a civilian fleet but that it was stripped for parts and useful personnel and then abandoned. I don't want to see the same thing happen to the Astral Queen." Cain stiffened and Kara could tell she was angry.

"I'm not going to deny it but commanders have to take difficult decisions to protect their ships and their crews, lieutenant. I'm sure commander Adama has had to do the same since the attacks. I'm not going to answer to you for my actions in keeping Pegasus and her crew going all this time."

"I don't expect you to, sir. I'm sure that you did what you felt was right in the circumstances and I'm in no position to question any decision that you make. However, things may be different now and I'd like to put the case for the Queen to you. I think I'm the most qualified person here to do that as I've been on the ship for some time and I know what she can do."

"That's fair," Cain acknowledged.

"She's well armed, sir and the crew may not be professional soldiers but they're pretty good in a fight. They're keen and willing and what's more they trust and respect Zarek implicitly."

"Do you trust him?"

"I think trust might be the wrong word, but I know that he feels strongly about protecting the rights and welfare of his men. If he gets word that you intend to strip the ship then he won't go down without a fight which would be a waste of resources and manpower on both sides, but if you get him on your side and you show that Pegasus is prepared to work with his ship then he will put all his resources at your disposal.

"Since you've been so candid with me, I'm going to be straight with you, lieutenant. We are low on fuel. We have sufficient for a couple more jumps at most and we're pretty screwed if the Cylons show up. If we take the fuel from the Astral Queen then we have a much better chance of finding Galactica and then we can come back for the Astral Queen with the rest of the fleet."

"But in the mean time, they're sitting ducks, especially if you take any of their weaponry as well. What if Galactica is only one jump away?"

"What if she isn't? I can't risk this ship on that assumption."

"Did you have any options before we showed up?"

"We had identified what we thought was a tyllium mining vessel but it is being guarded by a Cylon basestar. It was going to be our next target after we'd destroyed their comm relay."

"I'll make a deal with you, sir. We jump to the next potential location of Galactica, taking the Astral Queen, fully intact, with us and if the fleet's not there then I'll plan you an op that'll take that mining ship from the Cylons." Cain's eyes narrowed and Kara wondered if she had finally gone too far.

"I don't make deals, lieutenant. I do listen to proposals but not usually from junior officer who aren't even part of my crew. I've already detected a certain arrogant confidence about you, lieutenant, but what makes you think that you'd come up with a better plan than the combined strengths of my command officers?"

"Because I've done it before with an even more difficult target." Cain raised her eyebrow in interest and Kara summarised the successful mission at the asteroid tyllium mine.

"That was hardly a textbook operational plan, lieutenant."

"Well sir, I figured that since the Cylons have already read all of our textbooks you've gotta do something different that'll surprise them!" Cain stared at her for some time and then shook her head.

"Are you this forthright with Commander Adama?"

"Pretty much, sir."

"I have no idea why I'm agreeing to this, but I can't help feeling some faith in you, lieutenant. My gut says that you're as good as you say you are and I've always been one to trust my gut instincts. Bill Adama could always identify a good officer and he obviously has faith in your abilities, even if you are related to him. So OK, I agree that we'll do one jump with the Astral Queen. If Galactica isn't there and you can surprise me first with your plan then I'll consider it." She motioned towards the phone. "Get Zarek on the line."

When they had Zarek on the phone, Kara explained the plan of the jump and the potential op for the mining ship. He knew not to ask too many questions and just agreed. He also didn't pretend not to know what was at stake.

"The Astral Queen is at your disposal, admiral, if she can help in this operation, and thank you."

"Don't thank me, Zarek, thank lieutenant Thrace: she was the one who went into bat for you and she plays a pretty mean game!"

−

All that remained to do now was to see if they could find Galactica's message. Kara sifted through the debris collected by the raptor. Sure enough there was a piece of viper. This one was marked "Apollo".

"Ha!" she shouted as she grabbed it and held it to her chest for a few moments. When she opened her eyes she realised that she was grinning inanely and the CAG, the raptor crew and most of the deckhands were staring at her like she'd grown a second head.

"I'll take this to the nav officer in CIC," she mumbled and strode off, colour high on her cheeks.

When she got to CIC she explained to the officer what she wanted done. The admiral came over and examined the piece of viper with interest.

"Interesting love letters your husband sends you, lieutenant."

"Yes, sir." Kara couldn't help the blush creeping back to her face as Cain immediately guessed who was actually leaving the messages. "But hopefully it'll work."

They worked out the co-ordinates and arranged the jump with the Astral Queen. Once it was complete Kara held her breath as dradis scanned the area.

"Nothing, sir."

Kara's shoulders slumped: back to square one again. And now she had an op to plan if she was to stop the admiral from going her own way and save the Astral Queen.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's note: **I know that I said I was going to update both of the versions of this story simultaneously but my eyes were obviously bigger than my stomach because that is proving quite a challenge. I thought that, since they are now on quite different paths and this chapter was finished, I would at least give you the next instalment of this version. Hope you enjoy

**Chapter 8**

"Thanks for coming Zarek."

Cain raised an eyebrow at Kara as Zarek joined them in the planning room where various models were arranged on the operation board.

"The participation of the Astral Queen is essential to my plan, sir. Thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and brief you together." She shrugged in apology as Cain gave her a hard stare, clearly not liking Zarek's presence.

"Alright. Go ahead, lieutenant."

"OK, so the plan is to take this tyllium ore refinery ship away from the Cylons. Our latest intell shows that the basestar is maintaining orbit around the ship here." She moved the model of the basestar onto the board. "Astral Queen will jump in here, pretending to be a mercenary pirate ship trying to steel the tyllium." Zarek smirked. "I thought you'd like that touch! The aim will be for the Astral Queen to draw the basestar away from the refinery ship. Once the basestar has moved a sufficient distance then Pegasus will jump in here between the basestar and the refinery ship."

"That requires a very precise jump, lieutenant."

"Yes sir, but it is essential. It puts us in the driving seat in the engagement. If we jumped in to a conventional attack position, say here for instance, then we'd have to destroy the basestar to get to the refinery ship. If we jumped in on the other side then the basestar could easily just destroy the refinery ship to avoid us capturing it and the explosion could take out even a ship of Pegasus' size. Once we are in position between the two ships then we can protect it, attack the basestar and launch our viper squadrons to protect the Astral Queen. The ideal outcome is that the basestar, having lost the advantage, will jump away, but if not then we will be close enough, and hopefully have enough of the element of surprise, to nuke it."

"Won't a nuclear explosion affect the tyllium ore?"

"Even if the ship doesn't have shielding, Pegasus' position should protect it."

"What is your estimate of casualties, Starbuck?" asked Zarek.

"The Queen's gonna get hit pretty hard. How hard depends on how fast you can get that basestar to move." Kara was impressed with how he reacted to this statement; he didn't flinch, didn't argue; he just looked at Cain with a distinct challenge in his eye.

"Well admiral? If you want to do it then we'll certainly do all we can to help."

"Thank you Mr Zarek. Lieutenant, an ingenious plan. Let's hope it works. Full executive staff briefing at 1800 hours." With that Cain left. Kara blew her cheeks out in relief: from what she had seen of how the admiral operated that seemed to be a fairly positive reaction.

"Everything alright, Starbuck?"

"Yeah, Its just it's not like dealing with the Old Man. I'm not sure how to read her yet."

"No, me neither and I can't say that I entirely trust her." Kara smirked at him.

"But then that's nothing new with you and the military is it Zarek?" He smiled in return.

"No, you're right, but somehow I seem to be placing a lot of trust in you, Starbuck. I haven't thanked you by the way. I have a feeling that if you hadn't been there I probably would have been back in my cell by now. We're all grateful. I had a long line of people asking me to give you their regards."

"Say hello to them for me and let's hope that this plan works and then we can get on with finding the fleet."

−

Kara joined Cain and the XO, Colonel Blake, in CIC as the operation began.

"I hate this part," she murmured.

"I thought you viper pilots loved the anticipation of a mission," asked Cain.

"Being in a viper I can handle. I meant the hanging around in CIC relying on other people to pull your plan off. The first time I ever had to do it was that operation at the tyllium asteroid I told you about. I came up with this completely crazy plan, but I'd injured my knee and couldn't fly, so Apollo led the mission: pulled it off with one of the most frakking amazing stunts I've ever seen in a viper, the mad SOB." She smiled at the memory. Before the admiral could ask her any more questions about it though they were interrupted by the announcement that the Astral Queen had jumped into position.

The next few minutes were very tense as they just had to listen as the basestar launched its raiders to attack the Astral Queen. Zarek seemed to be enjoying his role as a pirate and the Queen gave back as good as she got, her guns taking out any number of raiders, but it was obvious that she was taking heavy fire in return. The basestar was gradually edging further and further away from the refinery ship. As soon as it had reached a distance which they had pre-determined the Astral Queen signalled Pegasus and Cain ordered the jump. Despite the admiral's misgivings, her crew delivered on the jump position, meeting Kara's plan exactly. After that it was all relatively simple. Pegasus was able to use its surprise arrival to launch a direct attack on the basestar and soon they were celebrating the victory. Cain immediately turned to Kara.

"Very well done, lieutenant. I have to say that I'm impressed by your vision and ingenuity."

"Thank you, sir. I'm sure that's just a nice way of saying that I'm crazy but thanks all the same!"

"Well if that's how your particular brand of crazy turns out then its fine with me." She turned back to her XO. "Colonel, I want damage reports from all division officers."

"Yes sir. We have the Astral Queen on the line. It seems that they have sustained heavy damage and have a fire on board which they can't get under control. They may have to abandon ship." Kara held her breath waiting for Cain's reaction to this news.

"Pity; they did an excellent job for a non-military vessel. Send over a team of engineers and raptors to bring the survivors to Pegasus if the ship can't be saved." Kara looked at her in surprise. "Do you have a problem, lieutenant?"

"No sir, it's just…I'm a bit surprised that you're bothering….I mean I don't want to discourage it. It's just before….I didn't think….." Kara shut up, realising that she was rambling.

"I give praise where praise is due, lieutenant and I recognise outstanding effort. Whoever they are, that crew deserves the attention. And I've realised that you were right: we can't afford to waste anyone from what's left of humanity."

−

It didn't turn out to be possible to save the Astral Queen. A lot of people were lost but just over 200 were rescued and brought aboard Pegasus, including Sam and all the survivors from Caprica. With the refinery ship now in tow securing an abundant supply of fuel, they continued to jump and pick up Apollo's messages. Kara's heart was warmed by the fact that he obviously hadn't given up hope. She was convinced that they would find the fleet eventually and that they were getting closer with each jump. She would have pushed to get there quicker but supplies were needed and Cain wanted the Cylon fleet tracked as well so time marched on.

The refugees from the Astral Queen were surprisingly well accepted by the crew of Pegasus. The job they did on the tyllium operation was fully appreciated by the military personnel. Zarek made sure that his people made themselves useful and also kept the more unruly elements of his former crew under tight rein. With the admiral's agreement, they had also prepared a pyramid court in Pegasus' vast gym and Sam and his friends were giving exhibitions and organising games.

Kara also continued to establish herself with Cain and her crew. The admiral had shown her their Cylon prisoner. Kara had confirmed that she had seen that particular model on Caprica, not that it was easy to recognise her after the working over she had obviously been given by Cain's interrogators.

"We haven't gotten any useful information out of it at all," the admiral complained.

"Yeah, we haven't found interrogation useful, either. Commander Adama had me interrogate the first Cylon we captured and I got nowhere with it, but the one we have on Galactica now has been really useful, even helped us escape from the Cylons on a couple of occasions."

"Why in the name of the Gods would it do that?"

"Well…um…you see…she…um…fell in love with one of our raptor pilots." Cain seemed amused by this idea.

"I somehow don't think this one is likely to fall in love with lieutenant Thorn. May be I'll get him to send in some handsome young ensign and see if that gets us anywhere!"

Over the weeks, Kara found herself spending a fair amount of time with the admiral and they gradually developed quite a rapport. She didn't agree with everything Cain did but she did come to respect her. The admiral wanted to know as much as possible about what had happened to the Galactica and its fleet since the attacks. Kara found some of these conversations rather stressful to say the least, as she didn't want to say anything that would drop Adama in the shit with his superior, but at the same time she could hardly lie to the admiral. She just decided that there were some things that the admiral really didn't need to know!

She continued to miss Lee with an intensity that she hadn't expected. She had all but forgotten their last harsh words to each other and only dwelt on the good times they had together. Her longing only seemed to get worse as time went on, not better, and was especially acute at moments that she knew they should have shared together. The worst was the first time she felt the baby move. She was so elated yet at the same time so sad that she couldn't share it with Lee that it was like an actual physical pain. The only good thing to come out of their continued separation was that it was helping her to establish a feeling for their child. She had been at best ambivalent about having a baby, but now she was lavishing all the love she normally gave to Lee onto his child. Since it had started moving, the baby had become much more real to her and she was now rather proud of her nicely developing rounded 'bump': no one on Pegasus could be in any doubt any more as to why she wasn't flying. Thankfully, her morning sickness had also abated and she was able to restart her early morning run, although it was more of a leisurely jog now after the doc had told her to take it easier. One particular morning she was just coming to the corridor where the executive staff quarters were located when she spotted a familiar figure surreptitiously closing one of the hatches.

"Samuel T Anders what do you think you're doing?" Sam turned in surprise at her voice and put a finger to his lips to shush her. He grabbed her elbow and dragged her down the corridor and around the corner.

"Could you be any more loud, Kara? It's five thirty in the morning for frak sake," he hissed at her.

"Yeah, so what are you doing coming out of the admiral's quarters at this hour?" she whispered back. He raised a suggestive eyebrow at her. Her eyes went wide. "You slept with Admiral Cain?"

"Well she looked like she could do with a good frak." Kara let out an incredulous laugh.

"Oh sweet Lords, you frakked the admiral!" Her surprise made her forget to keep quiet.

"Shhhhhh, I don't really want the whole frakking ship to know. Think about it, Kara; every single guy on this ship is off limits to her because she has to uphold the military regs. There's no one that she can use to relieve any….tension. That doesn't apply to me: I don't work for her. Think of it as my service to the ship. Happy admiral equals happy crew."

"Yeah, I bet you were just thinking about their welfare: you're all heart, Sam. Gods, she must be years older than you."

"Not that much and that doesn't really matter to me. She's got a great body under that uniform." He gave an exaggerated yawn. "And frak me, has that woman got some stamina." Kara put her hands over her ears and screwed her eyes shut.

"Oh no, I didn't need to hear that." She opened her eyes wide again. "Oh Gods, I can't believe I'm going to have to see her in CIC in a few hours knowing that you... that she…." She shook her head to clear the mental image.

"Yeah, may be you can compare notes," he grinned lasciviously. She slapped him on the arm but couldn't maintain a serious expression as her appreciation of the ridiculous won her over and she started to really giggle.

"How long has this been going on?" she asked when she eventually got herself under control.

"Umm, since not long after we got here." He admitted, almost blushing. "Seems that she does do charm after all." Kara just snorted. "You know that my heart belongs to you, Kara, but man cannot live by pining alone." He gave her a mock-pathetic look.

"Pining my ass! I can't believe that you're frakking the admiral. That's kind of a leap from a lowly lieutenant. Way to go, Sam!" He grinned back at her.

"Yeah, Zarek's gonna be pissed if he ever finds out. I reckon he was up for a crack at her. Glad I got there first."

"Well she's got good taste, I'll give her that."

"Thanks. Now I'm going to catch up on my sleep." He winked at her and strolled nonchalantly down the corridor.

−

When Kara went on duty in CIC she was sure that she blushed the first time she saw Cain, but the normal routine in CIC soon made her get over it. She was on watch with the XO. She liked Robert Blake; he was a great foil for Cain's rather abrasive personality and Cain seemed to listen to him. He was also a very hard worker and followed a punishing schedule that was obviously catching up with him as he tried to cover a yawn.

"Are we keeping you awake, Robert?" asked the admiral.

"Sorry, sir. I didn't sleep very well last night."

"No I didn't get much sleep either," Cain replied, massaging a knot in her neck. Kara made a sort of strangled cough sound making both of them look at her.

"Are you alright lieutenant Thrace?"

"Fine, sir. Just got something in my throat."

I'm gonna kill him, she thought. I'm so gonna kill him!

Kara's thoughts of murdering Sam were broken by the announcement that they were ready for their next jump. She held on to the console as the jump started. Once it was complete she raised her eyes to the dradis screen, ever hopeful that she would see the fleet appear. This time her prayers seemed to have been answered and she was rewarded by a large number of blips popping up on the screen. Suddenly Dee's familiar voice came over the wireless.

"This is the battlestar Galactica………"

−


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's note: I've revised the rating of this story to allow myself free reign with the K/L reunion!**

**Chapter 9**

From her place next to Billy, Dualla watched Lee across the mess hall as he twirled the lumps of food around on his plate, seemingly oblivious to the laughing conversation that the other pilots were having around him. She seemed to have been watching him a lot lately. Starbuck had been gone for over two months now and whilst he was performing his CAG duties as well as ever, all life and spark had gone out of him. He rarely joined the card game in the rec room, but buried himself away in his office. The crew of Galactica had all been affected by the loss of their talismanic pilot. At first there had been a great deal of hope that the Astral Queen would find them again, but that had soon waned as the weeks past and by now everyone had accepted that Starbuck was lost forever. Everyone except Lee. Whilst it was only natural for him to grieve the loss of his wife and unborn child, their constant state of combat and the number of people that were killed each week made long periods of mourning a luxury that the crew of Galactica couldn't afford to indulge in. She thought that it was about time that someone tried to do something about Lee's state of mind. She felt that it should be his father and she had tentatively raised the subject with the commander, but he had just looked at her sombrely and said that Lee would move on in his own good time. This made her realise that Adama also hadn't come to terms with the loss of Starbuck. She was just going to have to tackle Lee herself.

She had always had a soft spot for Lee Adama, ever since he had first come on board Galactica. At one time, after Starbuck had gone back to Caprica, she had hoped that something more than just friendship might develop between them. But then he had come back to the fleet with Starbuck on his arm and a look of such love on his face that she had given up hoping and thrown herself into her relationship with Billy. When Billy had proposed she had said yes, but she still hadn't let him set a date for their wedding. She knew that she was very lucky to have him but she felt that she was just settling: she didn't want to just settle for someone. Their relationship was comfortable, but it lacked passion. If there was anything that Starbuck and Apollo had in spades it was passion. On more than one occasion she had been sent to the flight deck by the old man with a message for Apollo, only to be greeted by a giggling deck crew who would point to an equipment locker and tell her that Apollo was inside with Starbuck, both so turned on after a mission in their vipers that they couldn't make it off the hanger deck. She only wished that Billy would do something so deliciously spontaneous. She really wanted to experience passion like that. At the same time, it was pretty common knowledge that they fought like mad and scuttlebutt around the ship was that their marriage was already on the rocks. If that were the case then there was even more reason for her to try and help Lee to move on. If in doing so he came to see her as a potential replacement for Kara, and transferred some of that passion to their relationship, then all well and good.

She found him just as expected in his office. He wasn't doing paperwork as she thought he would be, but fiddling with a tool and a piece of rusty old metal, carving words into it.

"I can't believe that you're still bothering with that," she said. He looked at her coldly.

"Is there something you need petty officer?" She realised that hadn't been the best opening gambit if she was going to get him to open up to her.

"No, Captain….Lee, I was just wondering how you were doing. We don't see you in the rec room very much anymore."

"No, I guess not," was all the reply she got as he returned his attention to the piece of metal. This was proving more difficult that she thought it would be.

"Why don't you come down tonight? Chief's latest batch of grog is ready and I think there'll be a big game."

"It's OK. I've got to finish this: you never know when we might have to jump next. And Starbuck won't know where we've gone if I don't leave a message." She huffed.

"Look Lee, I'm sure that I'm not the first person to tell you this but Starbuck's gone; she's dead. Continuing to leave these silly messages is pointless."

"No she isn't! She isn't dead and it's not pointless," he spat out. Her turned back to the piece of metal and caressed it. Dee could see the tears pooling in his eyes.

"Lee, I don't like to see you fooling yourself in this way." She hesitated for a moment but then approached him and crouched down beside his chair so that she could look into his face. "I know how incredibly hard it must be for you to accept that your wife and child are dead when we never saw their ship destroyed, but you have to allow yourself to let them go. We all need you Lee; we need Apollo back. You can't carry on like this."

"I haven't had any complaints about the way I'm doing my job. If I choose to spend my free time trying to do something to find my wife then that's no concern of yours, Dee."

"OK, but just remember that I'm here whenever if you need someone to talk to or help you in any way." She rubbed her hand up and down his arm. Lee stiffened.

"Are you offering yourself to me, Petty Officer?" His blue eyes were like chips of ice as he looked at her.

"No...Yes...as a friend Lee."

"Good, I'm glad we've got that straight because Billy Keikeya is also a friend of mine. I would never treat a friend in that way nor would I like to think that you would be prepared to. This has been a nice try Dee but it's not gonna work; it's never gonna work because Kara's not dead. I would know if she were: I would feel it here." His voice had risen to a shout as he pressed his hand over his heart. "And if you really do need Apollo back then you had better join me in praying that she isn't dead, because if she were I would have to accept the fact that the last words I ever said to the only woman that I will ever truly love were bitter and hurtful. If I have to do that then there would be no more Apollo because that's not a feeling that I want to live with."

She stood up and looked at him sadly, admitting defeat, at least for the time being. She wondered whether she should speak to doc Cottle. This well of self-loathing and self-pity that he was sinking in to was obviously getting deeper as time went on and in her opinion it wasn't healthy.

"Well...umm…OK. You know where I am," she said quietly as she slipped out of the room and let Lee go back to his carving.

The next time she saw him was in CIC the next day and he ignored her, but she continued to watch him. The look of hope on his face when they spotted the unknown ship on dradis was quite pathetic. The demoralisation when it didn't turn out to be the Astral Queen was painful to see: the miracle of finding another surviving battlestar was lost on Lee Adama.

−

Lee pulled his uniform jacket on with a sigh. The last thing he wanted at the moment was to go on parade for some jumped up admiral. He made his way to the hanger bay to organise his group: he knew that his father wanted to put on a good show and most of them had never even drilled before and hardly knew how to come to attention properly. He got them sorted as best he could and then took his place at the front. There was a full turn out to welcome the first party from Pegasus. His father greeted Admiral Cain as she stepped down from her raptor transport. He then introduced her to the president and all of his senior officers, starting with Tigh and then moving on to Lee.

"Our CAG, Captain Adama." Lee saluted smartly.

"So you're Captain Adama. I've heard a lot about you."

"Er... you have sir?"

"Yes. We have some lost property of yours aboard Pegasus."

"Lost property? I'm sorry sir, I don't understand. I've never served on Pegasus."

"Well I'm assured that this particular piece of property belongs to you: make sure that you don't loose it again." There was an infuriating smirk playing around her mouth at his confusion and then she glanced over her shoulder as if looking for someone.

"I….um… don't….um…" Lee's inarticulate mumblings trailed off as he caught sight of someone stepping off the raptor behind the admiral. It couldn't be… but the blonde hair was so similar the feeling of hope that immediately welled up inside him was acute. It was cruel of the Gods to torture him in this way if it wasn't her. He had already gone through the hope of finding her once today; he couldn't go through it again. Then the woman raised her head and looked directly at him…..Kara! His breath caught in his throat and his chest tightened so painfully that he couldn't breathe. He couldn't seem to move either; people were cheering and hugging around them as the two crews greeted each other, but he just stood there staring at her. She had stopped moving too and was looking at him with her bottom lip caught between her teeth in a trademark smile and her eyes were glazing with tears. Suddenly his body seemed to move of its own volition and then she was in his arms and he was holding her and drinking in her familiar smell and feel. Oh Gods, his heart was pounding so hard he thought it would explode out of his chest.

"Kara, oh Kara," he sighed, burying his face in her neck.

"Lee." She choked out.

"Oh baby I've missed you so much."

"Me too."

"I can't believe that you're really here." He pulled her even tighter against him, as if he was afraid that she might disappear again if he let her go.

"Careful, Lee" she laughed lightly. Moving back she pulled his hand down onto her rounded belly.

"Wow." He whispered reverently. "Just…wow."

"Don't you dare say that I look fat."

"I can truthfully say that I've never seen anything in my life as beautiful as you are at this moment." With that he bent to capture her mouth in a sweet kiss.

His father watched them, an indulgent smile on his face and even the suspicion of a tear in his eye.

"Remind me to discuss your approach to the fraternisation regs later, Bill," the admiral said to him, bringing him back with a start. He looked at her sharply, but there was the hint of a smile in her face.

"Yes, sir." She nodded towards Kara.

"We've had her on board for almost two months. I've been very pleased with her as a command officer. She's made herself very useful."

"She has a habit of doing that."

"Although I think I would have preferred to have her as a pilot."

"You and me both, even though I'm getting a grandchild out of her being grounded, but I imagine that we won't be able to keep her out of a viper once that baby's born." Cain smiled and called to Kara, making the pair of reunited lovers pull apart.

"Lieutenant Thrace."

"Yes sir?"

"I don't need to see you back on Pegasus until mid shift tomorrow."

"Thank you, sir."

"I'm sure the commander will allow Captain Adama the night off as well. The pair of you must have a lot to catch up on. Now get out of here before you break the PDA regs any further!"

"Enjoy!" said the commander as he nodded in agreement. Lee and Kara didn't wait to be told twice and left the hanger deck with a gaggle of their friends, all anxious to hear how Starbuck had ended up on Pegasus.

"I can't believe that I was that young and in love once!" Adama said wistfully, watching his children surreptitiously joining hands as they disappeared into the corridor.

"Don't tell me that you're feeling your age, Bill; I won't believe it!" Cain joked lightly.

"I'm supposed to be retired."

"Funny retirement! Thrace has filled me in on some of the things that have happened to the Galactica and this fleet since the attacks and you've obviously had a tough job. I have no intention of coming in heavy handed, Bill, but there are some things that I would like to talk to you about." He nodded: he hadn't missed the fact that she had told Kara to go back to Pegasus tomorrow rather than resume her post on Galactica.

"I thought there might be. Shall we move this to my quarters? I'm sure that it'll be more palatable over a glass of ambrosia."

Once they were comfortably settled in his quarters she began.

"I said that I wouldn't interfere and I mean that. I'm quite happy for the two crews to continue as they are, but I have to make one exception: I'm going to transfer Captain Adama to the Pegasus. It'll be a straight swap; your CAG for mine. Thrace has done her best to convince me that there hasn't been an issue having your son in such a key position under your command, but it's obvious that there have been some difficulties. I know that you had no choice but to appoint him after the attacks, and from what I can gather he's generally done an excellent job, but now there is a choice and I think we should make the change. I'm also going to keep Thrace on Pegasus for the time being. She has been good for my crew, stirred them up a bit, and I doubt I'd hear the end of it if I tried to keep them apart." Adama laughed but then became serious.

"I want you to know that I made it a clear stipulation when I agreed to their marriage that their personal relationship couldn't affect their jobs. I know you don't like it, but we're going to have to re-think the frat regs. The colonies are gone and we can't afford to keep people apart because of some out of date philosophy."

"I agree that once we have returned to some sort of normality they should be looked at, but I wouldn't do it while we're still engaging with the enemy on a regular basis, and I certainly wouldn't have started with my CAG and lead pilot. But you have no need to justify yourself with me: Starbuck has already done it for you. You should know that she's had no compunction in treating me in the same forthright way I imagine she treats you!"

"I'm surprised you're not desperate to get her off your ship in that case!"

"To be honest I rather enjoy it; I find her refreshing."

"Alright, I admit that I don't like the idea of these transfers; I think we've become a good team, but I understand your reasons."

"We'll look at the situation again once she goes back to vipers and I've had a chance to fully assess Captain Adama's capabilities. Now, the other person we have to discuss is your XO."

"If your opinion of him is based on anything that lieutenant Thrace has said then it's likely to be distorted." She stared at him for a few moments.

"I am able to make up my own opinions on the basis of information I receive, Bill. I'm not going to make you do anything about Colonel Tigh just yet, but you can tell him that I'm watching him. He steps out of line at all and I will intervene and replace him."

"He's a good XO. He's just not a great commander," Adama admitted.

"But that's the problem Bill, because if, Gods forbid, anything happened to you then he would be."

"I don't plan on getting shot by a Cylon again!"

"Don't even joke about it. I hope you think that I've been fair, Bill. I want these two ships to work together as one and to do that we need to have a completely honest and open relationship." He nodded in acceptance. "Good. Now we have been tracking a very interesting prospective target for our first test together."

She showed him the pictures that they had of the cylon fleet and the large, unknown ship that they had been tracking and they made arrangements to meet up to discuss the op plan the following day.

−

Lee and Kara were almost comically nervous when they found themselves alone at last in their quarters.

"Frak, I feel like a wedding night virgin," Lee admitted as he ran his fingers through his hair in a nervous gesture. "After the things I said to you, Kara…."

"Shhh, we're not gonna talk about that. Eventually, yes. Tomorrow perhaps, but not tonight. Tonight we're ignoring reality. Tonight I just want you to love me."

He wrapped her in his arms.

"I can do that."

They started to kiss and then hands started to work to remove clothing. As Lee worked to remove Kara's tanks it was her turn to be nervous.

"I'm gonna be different to how you remember Lee."

"That's OK with me. Different is good." He pulled her tanks and bra over her head. He leant down and started to kiss her breasts.

"For instance these. I mean they used to be good….(kiss)... but now…(kiss)…they're magnificent." Kara giggled and then shivered in desire as he took one pert nipple in to his mouth.

"And this is just…" He dropped to his knees and rained light kisses onto her rounded belly. "…(kiss)…wonderful…(kiss)… beautiful…(kiss)…special." He stopped and pulled back for a moment. He rested his palm and then his cheek against her belly.

"I was so worried about you."

"I know, but I'm fine; we're both fine."

"I've missed so much."

"Not much really, just a lot of vomiting and me being grouchy."

"I should have been there to help you through it."

"Yeah, well these things happen and it was hardly your fault that the Astral Queen's FTL was frakked."

"Well now I've got you back I'm never letting you go again."

"I'm counting on it: I'm certainly not changing any diapers."

"Is this OK? I mean should we be….."

"I'm only five months pregnant Lee, I'm not dying. And right now I'm feeling incredibly horny. Now where were we?" He grinned up at her then stood up and scooped her into his arms.

"Right about here, Mrs Adama." He laid her down on the bed and quickly joined her. Their lovemaking was slow and leisurely as they rediscovered each other's bodies. Lee was as gentle and caring as he could be, frightened that he'd hurt the baby, and she knew from his face that he was concentrating hard on holding back his more animalistic side that tended to come out when they made love. Her heart soared that he would do that for her, even if she really didn't want him to. Afterwards, they lay with their arms wrapped around each other, just enjoying each others presence after so long apart. Lee started to fiddle with her lengthening hair and then launched into a subject that had been bothering him since he'd heard about it.

"So Sam Anders is alive. Do I need to be jealous?" She stiffened and frowned instantly.

"No discussion of our problems tonight, remember." She slapped him on the chest.

"OK, OK, pax!" He made a sign of surrender. She couldn't help but smile at his adorable look of schoolboy contrition.

"Idiot! Anyway you don't have to be jealous. Sam's moved on to much bigger and better things than me."

"Who could be better than you?" he said, nuzzling her neck.

"How about the most powerful woman in the fleet."

"Hey, I'm pretty sure that my father's got dibs on the president."

"Not the president, dumbass. There's a new top bitch in town remember."

"Admiral Cain? Sam and Admiral Cain?"

"Oh yeah."

"Well he's certainly brave, I'll give him that." She raised an enquiring eyebrow at him. "She looks like a real ball breaker type to me," he explained. Kara laughed.

"I'm OK with that as long as she doesn't try to break your balls: they belong to me." He gave her a look. "What?"

"That's kind of a hot idea: two women fighting over my testicles." Kara grabbed the part of his anatomy in question.

"Oh there wouldn't be much of a fight because every woman around here knows that they're already mine and they wouldn't stand a chance." She gave them a squeeze and Lee's eyes almost disappeared in to the back of his head.

"Oh Lords, Kara I've missed you."

"You mean you've missed the things I do to you."

"No I've missed pretty much everything about you." He rolled her over and kissed her passionately, overwhelmingly, almost devouring her, trying to convey everything he felt in the kiss. She kissed him back with as much passion. Their mouths only broke apart when air became scarce and they were both panting heavily to get some oxygen back in to their lungs.

"Oh Gods Kara, you need to stop me if I'm hurting you or the baby 'cos I don't think I can be gentle this time." He resumed his assault on her lips and then moved down her body.

"Frak gentle, Lee. Give it all you've got."

"Are you sure?" he asked with a grin as he moved back up to kiss her again. "Cos after almost three months abstinence I've got quite a lot."

"I'm counting on it."

There was no need for foreplay: they both just had a need to be as close as two people could be, to fill and be filled. As he entered her she wrapped her legs around his hips to pull him in deeper. The rhythm he started was fast and hard. She moved in complete sync with him, urging him on, deeper and deeper. There were no more words, just moaning and panting, sucking and tasting. They both cried out each other's names as they climaxed together.

It took a while for them to come down. Kara was completely spent, sprawled out half across Lee. He pulled her up closer so that her head rested on his shoulder. He kept his arms wrapped around her: he just couldn't bear not to be touching her. She nuzzled his neck and sighed in contentment. He thought she had gone to sleep but all of a sudden she giggled.

"What is it?"

"I think we woke the baby." She took his hand and placed it on her belly. Sure enough, after a few moments he felt a ripple of movement. He let out a laugh of amazement then shimmied down her body and started to kiss her belly where he'd felt the baby.

"It's OK little one. Daddy's here and he's gonna look after you and mommy from now on. Now you go back to sleep so that mommy can get her rest."

"Daft idiot," she murmured with a sleepy smile.

He got them comfortable again, arms and legs entwined. Almost immediately her eyelids fluttered shut, but he was content to stay awake and watch her sleep. He knew that they had some tough things to talk through tomorrow, but tonight he just wanted to enjoy the fact that she was back with him again. It was almost as if he was afraid to go to sleep because he couldn't quite believe that she would still be there when he woke up. Eventually, though, tiredness overtook him and he fell into the deepest and most contented sleep that he had had since she had gone.

−

Author's note: So it's June, the sky is blue and the sun is shining and I'm just not in the mood for angst at the moment. Hope this wasn't too sickly sweet for you. Also, sorry to all the Dee fans but it had to be done!


End file.
